Distilling idea

[googe]

Hey all, have been thinking again :roll: , would this idea work?. If i had a boiler of some sort that could be heated up dry, have the wash slowly dripping or running into it, like dripping water into a hot frypan. Creates vapour that runs through the normal stilling process. Be gentle with me, im new :razz: :))

[crow]

ok how are you going to achieve that without losing vapor or having vapor push back up ya feed line , well ya can I guess its called a continuous still and would be a big deal to make and save you nothing for batch distilling . Forget it just use a decent burner , they are on ebay I think 50 odd bucks for a 3 ring and $79 delivered for a 4 ring was last time I checked anyway or check out BDs I mean CupCakes home made burner thread :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: The BD747 one hell of a burner , ya couldn't piss faster than it comes out with that :-o

[googe]

Im sticking with my orig idea and dont want to change it, just having thoughts, thats all ;). I did read his thread, we had simillar ones when i was a kid for crabs, mean things!.

[Stephen]

How do you intend to take off heads and tails if its constantly running?
Surely they would be constantly flashing off as fresh wash was added to the boiler?

[Stephen]

The Jack Daniels still on mega factories uses hot plates and pours the wash across them in a similar way to what your suggesting. Not sure how they pull the heads or tails either.

[crow]

woken up poorly after JD , suggesting they don't :teasing-tease:

[Stephen]

Too true.

[googe]

Like i said stephen, im new i have no idea haha. I dont really know what your saying? :? , woldnt the vapour just go through the still like normal boiling?.

[Stephen]

Same, I'm only new. The heads come off at the start of your run and contain nasties like methanol and alcalides that send ya blind. Not sure what's in tails but in any case they both also taste like shit so aren't very desirable to drink. That's the beauty of boiling one wash at a time. The heads all come out at the start of the run, tails out at the end of the run and you keep the middle. Beauty!
Must be possible somehow but whether it's worth the effort is up to you.

[R-sole]

There's nothing in a distillers wash in a quantity that will make you blind or do any worse to you than give you a headache after drinking normal quantity.

That's just bullshit and shouldn't be repeated.

[Stephen]

No worries, poor choice of words on my part.
Undesirable bad tasting shit that can lead to bad hangover experience.
By all means but if you really want to build this type of boiler and can work out the kinks. Go for it. Just do a write up with lots of pics and results.

Cheers

[bt1]

Don't stop thinkn bloke,

whilst difficult it's the most novel free thinkin idea I read in over a year.

who bloody knows...no ones ever had a crack.


bt1

[googe]

Cheers stephen, this isnt something im going to be doing next week or maybe even in 20 weeks time haha, just having ideas i will get back to when i get more experience, i can be very stuborn when i want and i ll try make it work if it kills me lol. Will do pics and stuff when i do. Thanks bt1, you've given me a big boost :). I wont stop thinking, i can hear the missus now "can you just stick to one idea" :)) . I was thinking of using an injection system to counter the vapour flowing back into the feed pipe :think: . Anyway cheers for the vote of confidence.

Cheers

[ChefRo]

Sounds like a continuous still to me. Haven't tried it yet but an overflow with a U connection water lock thing, off the side of the boiler and a feed line going into the 2nd or 3rd plate, should do the trick. Did a bit of reading on it a while ago, but untested by me.
Pritty pointless unless you want to produce a ton of booze.

[stilly_bugger]

There's nothing in a distillers wash in a quantity that will make you blind or do any worse to you than give you a headache after drinking normal quantity.

That's just bullshit and shouldn't be repeated.

+1 to that.

[googe]

I know you think im bonkers for trying this but im going to give it a go on the weekend, nothing ventured nothing gained. The whole idea is to reduce heat up times and be able to do big washes with a smaller boiler. Stripping runs only. Im going to introduce the wash into the column cause i dont have the tools to mess wth the stainless keg, cant see much difference doing it through the column anyway. I want some advice from the experienced people who know about how vapors and distilling work, i want to know where would be the best entry point for the wash, at the base of the column or further up, im thinking futher up might act like a reflux type idea as the wash will fall down through the rising vapor. Ive got a spare tpw i ll be trying it with. Any advice great thanks.

Cheers

[JayD]

From what I researched what you are talking about making is a continuous still and you can buy plans off the net, they sound like a good idea for ripping out your bulk product, but you would have to re run it as it comes out at a lower abv... I have thought about this aswell but one has to ones self where in hell would I store all the low wines? but hey if you want to do it,go right ahead, but do it right...big amounts could amount to big trouble ? keep us informed as you go as it would be interesting to see the results from a member not some cyber dude trying to make a buck. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[NotBenStiller]

good luck - but i think your attempt will be very very inefficient.
you'd want a very small heating area to apply the small stream of wash to other wise there would be a lot of wasted heat - if you are heating the whole keg, most of the heat is being radiated to the air -i don't think air will effectively heat the wash to it's vapour point.

As you said - it could only be used for stripping - since you're only heating a few mL at a time you'll be getting fores, heads, hearts and tails being vapourized continuously.
If you wanted to run it for a spirit run you'd need a huge equilibriating time (and maybe a huge column to hold all that vapour) to separate them out - thus negating the benefits of minimal heat up times.

Ultimately the time for a run will be the same - whether you heat 1L of water with say 2000W all in one go or a drop at a time - the water will still take the exact same amount of joules and thus the same amount of time.
But with wasted heating applied to the keg that's not directly heating the wash you're attempt will take even longer.

The only benefit i can see is that, as you stated, you can do bigger washes with a small boiler.
But then i reckon it'll be quicker to run a few normal stripping runs.

[Lupus]

I suspect you are going to encounter issues making this work. I can see your aim, hot element and small volume, the wash is going to flash vaporize achieving your goal of vaporizing the wash quickly. As suggested by your description of the water droplets on a hot pan analogy.

Excuse me if I am wrong in my thinking, but there is one major flaw in the thought process.

The aim of the distillation process is not vaporization of the entire wash, but selective vaporization of the more volatile components (in our case the ethanol) so that the vaporized volatiles can be captured and condensed back into fluid form, thereby separating the volatile ethanol from water.

If you flash vaporize the wash, both water and ethanol are vaporized, creating a poor separation if the wash components.

[BackyardBrewer]

What lupus said... Sounds like you're making alcohol and water 'steam' not condensed alcohol vapour.