NEMO-Chemistry
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REDNECK Solar still
Since i happen to know we have a real live redneck on the forum who makes ethanol...............
Does anyone have a safe way to make a solar powered ethanol still? I want to increase the amount of ethanol i get but it takes ages to distill, its
not for drinking but extractions.
I have seen some you tube solar powered stills but most look like death traps.
Has our resident redneck got any good and reliable sources of decent info for making one?
Of course i know he dosnt actually make or do anything illegal himself, but he may know how its done  .
I tried the double glazed box and black metal pot with long copper tube, but even with major cooling i just got everything still over
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crystal grower
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"Since i happen to know we have a real live redneck on the forum who makes ethanol..............."
This cool REDNECK have sent me a nice piece of tellurium to my collection  .
Sorry for being a bit offtopic :$.
[Edited on 4-7-2016 by crystal grower]
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macckone
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Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry  |
I tried the double glazed box and black metal pot with long copper tube, but even with major cooling i just got everything still over
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If you are running a solar still, you can have too low of a temp, almost inevitable.
In which case it takes too long, you don't get reflux and you don't get good separation.
If you allow any still to run too long, you boil off the water too.
A non reflux solar still will only increase alcohol content a certain amount on each
pass. It could take a bunch of passes to get good concentrations.
Now the practicals.
The back sides of the box being insulated will increase the temp.
Other than that, using mirrors to increase solar radiation is really the only option.
Having the box do good tracking is also a method that will increase temp.
If you are getting 400w/m then your solar still is really cranking it.
solar stills are usually used for separating solids from liquids not from each other.
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NEMO-Chemistry
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I need a rethink then, it gets really hot inside the box.
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macckone
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Really hot is not very scientific.
It can easily get over 100C provided no heat is removed.
The still will remove heat, especially with reflux.
The amount of heat added and removed is very important.
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NEMO-Chemistry
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| Quote: Originally posted by macckone | Really hot is not very scientific.
It can easily get over 100C provided no heat is removed.
The still will remove heat, especially with reflux.
The amount of heat added and removed is very important. |
I have started taking it apart, it was double glazed windows on 3 sides, then a aluminum plate painted black thet had the smallish still sat on it,
the still also painted black.
My thermometer went upto 140c and the temp went past that, the still worked for a little while then i just got steam coming out.
Looking at you tube vids i didnt have anywhere near enough cooling. I had a cracked glass pane as well so not sure how hot it got.
I am looking at a different design now. Might be easier to buy a solar panel and use electric heating!
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Dr.Bob
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Try searching for solar ethanol distillation on Google. There is a good article there on the topic, along with many others I have not read as well.
But this one is pretty interesting:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Oara_Neumann/publicatio...
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NEMO-Chemistry
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Thabk you i will read it, i built the first one with a complete lack of knowledge, i saw utube of a panel belting out steam and just kind of copied
it.
I didnt think too much about reflux etc at the time.
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