Copper Still Design

I use a lot of ethanol for tinctures, plant extraction, solvent and the like. The current system of stripping the 'beer' mash in my buddy's pressure cooker pot still and then further refining in my 1000ml RBF with 500mmx30mm (ID) S/S tube filled with a pot scrubber is just taking too long, I mean like about 10 days of constant work for a few gallons of grain alcohol in the mid-nineties.

So, I have decided to upgrade to a larger copper set-up purely for alky production. This has the added advantage of freeing up what little glassware l have for other things.

The objective here is that 50 litres of 'beer' mash go in and a few gallons of azeotropic ethanol come out, in one day.

I have been looking at some designs and would like some feedback...........

http://homedistiller.org/equip/types/fraction

http://homedistiller.org/equip/photos-sm

http://homedistiller.org/equip/photos-reflux

I am particularly liking the first StillMaker still in the second link.
Simple and effective..............

Here is my 90 litre copper 'flask' -





Here is my heat source -





And here is my neck, which is worrying me a little -



Internal diameter of the 'neck' is 25mm/1", and I plan to step this up to a 50mm/2" fitting, mated to a 1metre x 50mm insulated fractionating column packed with S/S scrubbers, follwed by a length of 15mm pipe encased in a 1 metre PVC condenser...........

Pondering -

Is my fractionating column long enough to produce 95% ethanol in one run...........?

Is my 25mm neck adapter too small and create a potential bomb.........?

Will my four gas rings be too hot for my relatively light copper cylinder.........?

I do plan to use a perforated steel 'fire sieve' or failing that, plop the whole lot in a barrel of water and boil away. This has more temperature control but boiling waterbaths really steam the place up. Not that kinda thing ya want when trying to hit the azeotrope.

Comments and criticisms welcome..............

/CJ


[Edited on 28-1-2017 by Corrosive Joeseph]

Holy hell that is a nice copper pot!!! I'm no use for advice in this area, end of the week brain and I havent read up on stills in quite some time, so you just get the complement that is a beaut'

suppose your heat source can provide 2256 W effective heating power to the pot,
Boil-up rate = 1 ml/second (for water, EtOH will be quicker)
so you could collect 3.6 litres of distillate per hour ... if it is a simple distillation ...

so if your reflux rate is high enough to give your column good fractionating power, e.g. 9:1
then you will get 0.36 litres per hour ... about 10 hours run for 50l of 7.2% 'beer', 20 hours for 14.4%ABV 'beer'

as you will be distilling the wash without filtration there is a good chance that the pot will 'puke' .... froth up and get to your distillate,
so a splash trap at the bottomof the column would be good.

fractionating columns work best when well insulated, with a reflux condenser,
if you do not want to run water continuously then a column with little or no insulation and no reflux condenser will work,
but with much less fractionating power.

... more reading at homedistiller required ......
(questions that could have been answered by searching the site are even more sinfull than doing the same here)

EDIT: your pot may have lead/tin solder which most distillers would agree, is unsuitable for human consumption.
(how it gets past a fractionating column I do not know)
As you want the EtOH as a solvent for eventual human consumption (vapour) I thought I'd mention it,
I think it is not significant, but others may disagree.

[Edited on 28-1-2017 by Sulaiman]

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman

EDIT: your pot may have lead/tin solder which most distillers would agree, is unsuitable for human consumption. (how it gets past a fractionating column I do not know) As you want the EtOH as a solvent for eventual human consumption (vapour) I thought I'd mention it, I think it is not significant, but others may disagree. [Edited on 28-1-2017 by Sulaiman]

Quote: Originally posted by Corrosive Joeseph

Is my fractionating column long enough to produce 95% ethanol in one run...........? Is my 25mm neck adapter too small and create a potential bomb.........?