steam distillation

[pope]

I've got to say I'm in love with my steam machine. I have a weighted pressure gauge on my steam generator, so I put it at 15 psi and run a stripping run (maybe 8-10 gallons max), then I just top up some water in the steam generator and shut the valve while thermal energy builds and I drain and reload the still for another stripping run. I'm upgrading to 3/4" ID drain hose so I'm hoping I can get drainage without clogging on small chunks of pulp, seeds, and grain chunks.

One thing that blew my mind was the amount of power. Using the above protocol I ran three stripping runs and never backed off of full power on a 5500w input, so I burned through something like 30-40kw! Insulation blankets will likely help A LOT, so that's an upgrade on the horizon.

[Twisted Brick]

Nice job, pope!

I'm looking to finish building my steam stripping rig (1" spanning 15g kegs) soon. I'm having a problem deciding on which PRV and which gauge to get).

Can you tell me what the highest reading on your pressure gauge has been?

Thx,

Twisted

[BlackStrap]

Nice job, pope!

I'm looking to finish building my steam stripping rig (1" spanning 15g kegs) soon. I'm having a problem deciding on which PRV and which gauge to get).

Hey there Twisted. I have a similar setup as yours 3/4 crossover between 2 15g kegs.
Here's what I chose for a PRV. It's rated at 5lbs and came from Amazon.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KO ... UTF8&psc=1

[LWTCS]

Excellent!
Can you talk a bit about water consumption please?
How long do you reckon you could run your steam generator before your water level dropped too low to safely cover the element?

[pope]

Twisted, I am using an all american weighted gauge (google "all american weighted gauge" and you'll see what I mean), I only ever shut the valve to build pressure when I'm standing at the system otherwise it's open to the boiler, which vents to air through the column/condenser. So I have gotten it up to 15 lbs and then released it with the valve or throttled back the power (using a PSR/Pot control box).

My crossover currently is a 1/2" ID silicone hose because I am only boiling water in the steam generator. When I release 15 lbs of pressure into the boiler I don't open the valve all the way, but the silicone seems to handle it all just fine. I'd like to move to a copper pipe so I can add some of the clear wash off the top of the grain and boost my total processing volume potential/reduce the dillution of my wash for final ABV of the low wines. But I did strip down my prickly pear wine from 11% and got right up to 40% low wines. My 6.5% bourbon mash is tbd, will report back tonight or tomorrow.

LWTCS I would say it's about 25% of the charge volume (i.e. 2 gallons of steam to 8 gallons of wash from room temp to a ~98.2 C head temp) but that's a flat-out guess. I will be processing tonight, my steam generator's thermowell gives me a visual reference for fill level so I'll run my stripping run on a precise amount of wash and give you some legit numbers with input and ambient temperatures. I bought a sight glass that'd be very handy for this purpose but I welded and screwed it on to my new still body instead.

[LWTCS]

Thanks.
When running can you also talk about what your running pressure is please?
What still head are your using?
What is your collection speed?
What is your favorite color?

[pope]

LOL Clear is my favorite color? Definitely not yellow because that means my still is puking

I can't say what the running pressure is because I'm using the weighted gauge, I only know that it's less than the weighted gauge's set pressure (5, 10, or 15). I recently switched to 15 so when I'm draining the boiler of backset and filling for another charge, I can build thermal energy by bringing the steamer up to 15 psi, but I ran it with the 5 psi weight and it never rattled (broke 5) the whole time over several stripping runs.

I have some flute parts so I've been using them without plates for risers, I have about 16-18" of 4" diameter riser, then an 8" concentric reducer and about another 16" of 2" copper, 12" lyne arm, drops into a 2" x 20" shotgun condenser. I run at full throttle (5500 w) the whole time but it's not that fast due to environmental losses, takes me maybe 40-60 minutes to strip 8 gallons once the steamer is boiling.

I'll time it and give you some better info!

[LWTCS]

Awesome.
Thanks for taking one for the team on this.
Do you have enough parts on hand to install a legit pressure gauge if you were to miraculously acquire one? I wanna say a 1/2" npt.

[pope]

Haha yea I do have the parts. The current gauge is a 1/2" male npt, the adapter is just copper pipe. I have my eye on some in the $50 range and I'd love to get one, I just also want to get a safety relief valve to go with. The proper ones have a vacuum and 15 psi relief built in but they're like $110 or so.

As for the run, by the clock here's how my steam run went down:

5:40 pm, everything (room, wash, steam charge) is roughly 20-22C, steamer starts @ 5500w & roughly 9 gal H2O; 8 gal bourbon style wash in the boiler (sludgy flour and all)
6:20 pm, the steamer is crossing to 100C and I'm hearing characteristic thumping noises in the boiler
6:45 pm, first drops on the column, boiler is about 90c, head temp is 87.5 C
8:00 pm, shut down, 98.3C; very close to 2 gallons of 30% collected (side note my abv was definitely higher than the 6.5% I expected)

All told that means I bought 12 kW, about $3. Definitely more than direct fire but still not too bad. Topping up the steam generator to the set point (thermowell just covered in water), I actually boiled off 3.5 gallons which means the boiler now has 9.5 gallons of watered-down backset. So I could probably run 10 gallons in the boiler but that's pretty much the upper limit.

I expect with some reflectix around the steamer and boiler and some hose insulation I could cut down on my times (and energy consumption). But in that time I was also busy cooking up the next wash and tidying up. I'm upgrading to a 3/4" drain hose (fittings and valve are 3/4" the hose was the constriction point), but the hot ex-stripping run flour slurry drains well even in 1/2" ID hose, and it flows out to be shoveled into compost just fine.

All told this process is pretty smooth and I'm a big fan. I used to cook cracked corn on a propane burner and I'd be staring down the barrel of a steaming pot of porridge for 30-60 minutes straight, and I'd use a mop wringer and paint sack to separate liquid from grain one drop at a time. This is a walk in the park by comparison, and for the $1 or so more in electricity I get a much more enjoyable evening (and better extraction).

[Twisted Brick]

Thanks Blackstrap, for the pic and the link. It's good to see other steam-strippers who take safety seriously. Your PRV looks like it will fit nicely into my design.

[Twisted Brick]

Thanks Pope, your solution looks really versatile. I like the idea that one can manually release pressure based on one's gauge reading whenever it's needed. I would assume this pressure release can also occur when needed to relieve back pressure from a thumper when shutting down the main boiler.

[pope]

The valve just releases pressure from the steam boiler to the still boiler, it works both ways so on shutdown both can equalize pressure to the outside via the condenser and column. But I disconnect the steam hose on shutdown to vent both directly to the air, an actual safety fitting would be ideal. There are a couple ways I could mess up the current system so I would like to make it significantly safer - I burned my hand a little on the inaugural run last week (turns out when you have a clog and decide pressurize a column via the steam injection arm and all the holes are below the liquid level, when the clog doesn’t dislodge there will be a backflow situation when you remove your hand).

[LWTCS]

So to be clear, can you more precisely delineate when you are talking about your steam boiler/generator vs. your kettle.

Sorry. I'm easily cornfuzed.

EDIT: ah, I see you are using the "steamer" word. Never mind.

[pope]

I do think that's a problem. Probably calling the steam boiler the "boiler" and calling the still boiler the "still" makes more sense, right? I have a long-standing disinclination to use the words "still" and "distill" in public, private, or apparently even on here

[pope]

I've also never posted pictures on here, but taking pictures would probably help too.

[pope]

I'm still going at this and was kindly paired up with a pressure gauge so had the chance to run my steam system with some readings, but came up with a bunch of 0's - I ran the entire stripping run with 0 psi in the steam boiler. Has anyone else had similar experiences? This is a 5500 watt boiler with an 8-gallon charge of pure H2O, the starting mash volume was 10 gallons, and the connection between them was 1/2" pipe, hose, and fittings strung along between the two systems. I estimate that the number of 1/16" holes (42) plus the area of the crimped end of the steam injection tube is equivalent to the area of a 1/2" ID pipe opening.

Toward the end of the stripping run I noticed quite vigorous 'boiling' that actually rocked the still. 'Boiling' in quotes because I'm not sure if it was the liquid boiling or just steam escaping and bubbling directly to the surface of the vessel. My low wine volume abv is consistent with a traditional direct-heat stripping run, and my head temperature climbed steadily so I don't think I sent a bunch of wasted heat up the column, but I'm interested to get some feedback.