closed loop cooling

[pjeterschornstein]

Hey all!

I know it' been discussed in the past but I haven't found some of these questions and thought I'll run my low tech plan here before I go overkill.

I have a 2" boka with a 50L boiler with 3000 element pre heating and I guess half than that for the run. want to have a closed loop cooling. I am absolutely certain about it.

I plan to run the water through leibig and then into a about 1m corrugated stainless steel condenser.
What I don't understand is what should be the max temp of the coolant. I thought it should be not so much bellow the vapor to cause condensation is that correct?
I don't really wanna do mess with a radiator now... Would a 55 Gallon drum work by itself? maybe exchanging some of the water once in a while.
Another thought was to use my old worm bucket passing the water through it before it goes back to the water reservoir and maybe sticking a few ice bottles there. If that's a good idea, would it allow me to use a smaller water reservoir ?

Thanks!

[Hügelwilli]

1 Watt 1 hour will heat up 1 liter water by 0.862°C. This means for example, 1500W will heat up 200l in 5 hours by 1500 x 5 : 200 x 0.862 = 32°C. So if you start at 20°C, the temp will be at the end 52°C. So the minimum distillate temperature you can achieve is 52°C. If this works depends on the condensers. If the PC is small, the distillate will have 60°C perhaps. If the RC is small, perhaps at the end of the run it is not able to reflux all the vapor.

[pjeterschornstein]

Thanks Hügelwilli! that's really a great explanation! Can you please tell me what PC and RC stand for? I didn't get this part.

[Tummydoc]

Product condenser and reflux condenser. You're not running a coolant management system (yours is liquid management) so coolant temp isnt as critical. 55 gallons recirculated should be fine.

[bluefish_dist]

A 55 gallon drum will be marginal for a full run. Would be better with 2.

If you dump the hot water to the bottom of the first one, then overflow to the second with the pump it will help keep the cold water colder longer.

[pjeterschornstein]

Thanks for your comments! Blufish, thanks. maybe I'll try it. need to get another drum..

As for using the worm bucket do you think it worth a try or it would be just the same to put ice bottles directly in the reservoir? (I don't want to stress the pump if it's the same...)

[Tummydoc]

If you can easily plum the worm into you system the added thermal mass will help. How big is your flake stand (worm bucket)?

[pjeterschornstein]

It's a 20 litter bucket with a coil of 7-8 turns of 13mm copper pipe.

[Tummydoc]

Probably not enough thermal mass to make a difference.