Corrosive Joeseph
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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]
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violet sin
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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'
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Sulaiman
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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]
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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Chemetix
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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] |
Good point! Are there organo-lead compounds that are likely to form from a ferment wash? I like the ye olde worlde feel to a copper still, but have
used stainless steel cookpots and a bit of TIG welding for this sort of thing generally.
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violet sin
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Well that looks brased not soldered, to my eyes. But I could be wrong. Was trying to read up on the Joule company but nothing usefull from my phone.
Same for brazing compositions. The screen is just too small to search effectively. One would assume if the tank was intended for home water systems
it would be lead free. Now as far as tin, I'm not sure. So to be clear, I bring nothing to the table but an assumption.
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Fulmen
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| 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.........? |
This will help you calculate your column:
http://homedistiller.org/calcs/reflux_calc
[Edited on 28-1-2017 by Corrosive Joeseph]
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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zed
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Ummm. Well, if you are referring to tradition methods. The fellers down in the hollow, like to glue the copper still together, with Wheat
Paste/Dough. The distilling is done outside, which decreases the possibility explosions and what-not.
The first few "Foxfire" books are full of useful info..
https://www.amazon.com/Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Building-Moonsh...
[Edited on 1-2-2017 by zed]
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Armadillonx
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Nice Copper pot. I used an old stainless keg for mine.
Be careful with the brass, it may have lead in it depending on its source/age. IIRC the old moonshiners would passivate the brass from time to time to
keep from worrying about the lead in it.
I recommend looking into the Bokakob design of still. It is cheap to make and I am able to get near azeotropic on the first pass if I go slow or at
azeotrope on a second pass.
[Edited on 1-2-2017 by Armadillonx]
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