Solar Cooker

[TheMidnightRider]

Am I missing something, or has the ethanol production industry skipped over the idea of solar cookers. I'm no expret, but I would imagine that a lot of the petroleum involved in the production of ethanol is used to heat it during distillation. It seems to me that if you put the wash in the middle of a mirror parabella (spelling?), then you could heat it using just the sun.

This also has potential for the homedistiller. Solar cookers are a very effective form of heating anything, as long as you have sun.

Im also throwing around the Idea of using an ethanol powered cooker to heat my still.

Anybody tried any of these?

[stoker]

it's not efficient enough for the industry

[hornedrhodent]

This also has potential for the homedistiller. Solar cookers are a very effective form of heating anything, as long as you have sun.

No more moonshine?



Just kidding - I think solar and vacuum is a real possibility for fuel.

[TheMidnightRider]

It's not efficient enough for the industry

not efficient enough? what do you mean?

Like I said, I'm no expert, but I dont see how u can get more efficient than something that runs without any energy input.

Just curious.

[stoker]

there's not always sun, and the set up costs too much.
they'll maybe be introduced when the oil price increaces more.

and solar pannels are maybe a better investment then those parabolic mirors.
it's all about money.

[pothead]

[quote="TheMidnightRider"]

Im also throwing around the Idea of using an ethanol powered cooker to heat my still.

[quote]

Pressurized ethanol would work.

[hornedrhodent]

Im also throwing around the Idea of using an ethanol powered cooker to heat my still.

I doubt it would be efficient if you had a lot of reflux unless it was pretty large and had a lot of insulation.

[dr wacky]

The idea of distilling with an alchol powered stove is of great appeal to
me. Mainly I was looking for a way to be able to determine if I was
actually experiencing a net energy gain. Not to mention being able to
escape the fossil fuel loop.

If you do a search on GooGle for 'alcohol camp stove' you will turn up
several pages detailing the construction of an alcohol powered camp
stove made from soda pop cans. I made a couple and did a few
experiments. These burners do not get hot enough and they dont hold
enough fuel.

I took the same pricipal idea and designed my own stove using cat food
cans. So far this has proved to be promising. It will burn everything from
70% rubbing alcohol to 99% denatured alcohol. Holds about 5 fluid
ounces of fuel for burn time of 50-60 minutes. Best calculations put it at
about 250 watts. 3 of these burners will bring 12L of water to a full rolling
boil in a little over an hour.

I've yet to actually distill anything. I'm still experimenting with a good
high alcohol wash. But from all my experiments this form of heating
looks like it will work.

I saw someone mentioned pressurized alcohol. Do you mean like a
coleman stove? I've been thinking about getting one at a garage sale or
thrift store to play around with.

[Grayson_Stewart]

If you find a way to distill alcohol using the fuel derived from distilling alcohol, woudn't you have found the answer to perpetual motion? I don't think it's going to happen.

[TheMidnightRider]

If you find a way to distill alcohol using the fuel derived from distilling alcohol, woudn't you have found the answer to perpetual motion?

no, most of the energy used to produce ethanol comes from the sun, through photosynthesis, I would imagine you could run a whole operation off of ethanol, but I dont think it would give a very good yield.

I bet you could create a self sufficient plant with a pretty good yield if you used ethanol in all applications that required fuel, but tried to eliminate the use of fuel wherever possible. doing things such as using gravity to water your crops, and setting up some other alternative energy sources like solar panels or wind generators to power your operation.

I dont do anything on a large scale, these are just rough Ideas that pop into my head while im typing, so sorry for any inaccuracies.

~The Midnight Rider

[dr wacky]

If our closed energy system consisted of only the two variables, X
amount of alcohol produced and Y amount of alcohol used as fuel to
produce it, then you would be absolutly correct. I would be chasing after
the mythological junk science beast called perpetual motion.

Distilling alcohol does not CREATE energy. It merely condenses the
energy that was converted during fermentation. The process of
fermentation does not CREATE any energy. It merely converts the
energy stored in the starches and sugars that we ferment. The sugars
and starches did not CREATE any energy. They merely converted
sunlight into a usable form for their own survival.

So now we've learned two things. MidnightRider is correct. Ultimately the
energy comes from the sun. You could say that ethanol is just portable
use on demand solar power. The second thing, is that while this is still a
closed energy system, it consists of far more than the two variables, X
amount of alcohol produced and Y amount of alcohol used as fuel to
produce it.

[hornedrhodent]

I use another form of stored solar energy - firewood.

[dr wacky]

While I'm sure that firewood is probably pretty effective and efficient,
I'm not really in a position to be able to use it.

Has anyone tried charcoal briquettes? It may take some practice to
achieve proper heat mangement. If the alcohol burners don't work as
well as I'd like, I just might give it a go.

[hornedrhodent]

Has anyone tried charcoal briquettes? It may take some practice to
achieve proper heat mangement. .

Cant see any difference between briquettes or firewood It's all a bastard to get the uniform heat input required for a reflux still. I may have to go to gas.