Today we opened the valve on the sep funnel and drained the water that we washed our experimental biodiesel with. We then tested it and found, as expected, that it was highly alkaline with a pH (+-11). This was expected as the catalyst we used was a base. We washed the Biodiesel 3 more times for a total of 4 washings. The final was came out at a pH of 7 or neutral. Then we took 4 samples to the FTIR spectrometer for some purity tests and baseline tests. The samples we tested were Petroleum diesel, methanol+glycerin mix from the biodiesel reaction, pure H2O, and our Biodiesel product after washing. Finally, we funneled the rest of our biodiesel into a sample container and added Na2SO4, a compound that absorbs water to "dry" it out.
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