Thinking about converting my column rig to a continuous stripper.

[Southern jeeper]

Currently I have a 12 gallon boiler set up with a 2 inch boka and also a 10 gallon thumper for pot still work and I was thinking I could use a lot of my existing parts from my column set up and reconfigure it to a continuous stripper

This is kinda what I was thinking but I really have no experience with a continuous still so if there are some blatant design issues chime in.

[zach]

I was looking at the armagnac still design which is continuous.

http://www.armagnac.fr/distillation-and-ageing

The pre heating of the wine or beer occurs in a separate vessel prior to a final condenser.

I likely will build a preheater this winter and use it like a cognac or charentaise still , as most everything I make I want to double distill.

[bunny]

Currently I have a 12 gallon boiler set up with a 2 inch boka and also a 10 gallon thumper for pot still work and I was thinking I could use a lot of my existing parts from my column set up and reconfigure it to a continuous stripper

image.jpg This is kinda what I was thinking but I really have no experience with a continuous still so if there are some blatant design issues chime in.

Why are you thinking about this?

[Yummyrum]

My gut feeling is that you may have issues with the pre-heater in the boiler.
If the beer gets too hot and vapourizes , it causes erratic feed rate issues. Also you want the beer to still be liquid when it enters the top .

You may have to play around with the length of tube in the boiler to get is right .

Most traditional continuous strippers tend to use the PC as the main pre-heating source . This is a more energy efficient method and also reduces the amount of cooling water needed as the beer is extracting the heat energy from the vapour .
Also a second source of preheating is done using the waste discharging from the boiler In combination , both of these heat sources are heating the beer for free , saving water and cooling the waste before discharge to sewer pipes .

[bunny]

My gut feeling is that you may have issues with the pre-heater in the boiler.
If the beer gets too hot and vapourizes , it causes erratic feed rate issues. Also you want the beer to still be liquid when it enters the top .

You may have to play around with the length of tube in the boiler to get is right .

Most traditional continuous strippers tend to use the PC as the main pre-heating source . This is a more energy efficient method and also reduces the amount of cooling water needed as the beer is extracting the heat energy from the vapour .
Also a second source of preheating is done using the waste discharging from the boiler In combination , both of these heat sources are heating the beer for free , saving water and cooling the waste before discharge to sewer pipes .

How would you go about the cleaning/vinegar/alcohol ritual in the cooling path of the PC? It doesn't seem like a natural path from the boiler.

[Southern jeeper]

My gut feeling is that you may have issues with the pre-heater in the boiler.
If the beer gets too hot and vapourizes , it causes erratic feed rate issues. Also you want the beer to still be liquid when it enters the top .

You may have to play around with the length of tube in the boiler to get is right .

Most traditional continuous strippers tend to use the PC as the main pre-heating source . This is a more energy efficient method and also reduces the amount of cooling water needed as the beer is extracting the heat energy from the vapour .
Also a second source of preheating is done using the waste discharging from the boiler In combination , both of these heat sources are heating the beer for free , saving water and cooling the waste before discharge to sewer pipes .

I should have clarified that on my drawing, I was intending to just have it coiled around the outside of the boiler and under its insulation. I was thinking about using the condenser as a preheater but wasn't sure if I would have enough flow for it to properly condense my product. Also I have several barrels of water I use as my coolant reservoirs so no wasted water

[Southern jeeper]

I'm excited to share an update on my rig I finally got it to work! However, the first attempt at running it was quite a learning curve. I started off with way too much heat, which caused terrible flooding. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get it to stabilize that day. So, I went back to pot stilling for a few batches.

After doing some more reading, I realized that I was using too much heat, resulting in an excessively high vapor speed. On my latest attempt, I adjusted the wattage down to about 2600 and slowly increased the wash feed to around 24 or 25 liters/hour. To my surprise, the rig stabilized, and I was able to achieve a 55% output. I ran it for about half an hour, collecting half a gallon before having to attend to other duties.

During my first run, I experienced issues with the wash output huffing, which I assume was caused by gas still in the wash. However, on my second attempt, I made some changes. I swapped my inlet and outlet on the condenser so that it feeds from the top and out the bottom. This helped me achieve a much more consistent output. Additionally, I completely ditched the preheater coil around the boiler idea because the shotgun condenser seemed to heat up the wash plenty.

Although I did manage to get it to work, I was disappointed with the speed compared to my pot still. I can strip 12 gallons in my pot still wide open in little over an hour, where this set up was only doing about 6 and a half. To improve this, I'm planning on upgrading to a 4-inch column, which should flow more than enough and handle anything I can throw at it with my little electric element. Ultimately, my goal is to strip at around the same rate as my pot still but without all the hassle of draining hot mash, repasting everything, and waiting around for the pot to heat back up to do two or more strips in a day.

[LWTCS]

Your power input is consistent with other results.

Perf plates with 12" spacings on a 4" column can absolutely do 35 gallons an hour if your pump can keep up and you can throw adequate power at the column.
Reducing the plate spacings will reduce the speed.

[Southern jeeper]

Perf plates with 12" spacings on a 4" column can absolutely do 35 gallons an hour if your pump can keep up and you can throw adequate power at the column.
Reducing the plate spacings will reduce the speed.

Oh wow that is a little more than I need for my purposes but with that kind of input what kind of column height are we talking about? I have a 4 foot section of 4 inch on the way and I was planning on packing with mixture of lava rock and stainless/copper mesh. Do you think that would be adequate for 10-15 gallons an hour input?

[tommysb]

Perf plates with 12" spacings on a 4" column can absolutely do 35 gallons an hour

How many perf plates would be needed, or, to look at it another way, how tall would the column have to be to support this kind of rate?

[Yummyrum]

Hoping Larry will chime in , but I’m sure when he says 35 gal /hr , that is Beer in , not stripped product out .

[LWTCS]

Hoping Larry will chime in , but I’m sure when he says 35 gal /hr , that is Beer in , not stripped product out .

Yessir, that is the beer processing speed with a 10% beer.
10 plates is what we have factored to ensure enough dwell time to flash all usable alcohol.
Puts the column at 12' feet high.

So yeah, kind of a bit much for a hobby guy.

Sorry I'm not implying that's what needs to be done in your situation. Just saying that a 4" diameter should provide really good hydraulic behavior for your feed rate and would not have to cope with excessive pressure associated with much faster feed rates.

In other words if you can afford the larger diameter, the beer column can still be made as a hobby sized rig and the larger diameter will help it not be as fiddley as long as your plate system holds up your beer long enough to release its alcohol.

[drmiller100]

Stripping column 4 inch diameter with marbles will run 20 gph with 10 percent each. Should drive the waste well under 1 percent with 36 inch tall column.
Preheat with condenser then with counter flow of waste

Stick a 36 inch tall 3 inch reflux on top and it produces 95 percent.

[Southern jeeper]

I've had some setbacks with my rig lately. Although I finally got my 4-inch pipe and a bunch of stainless scrubbies, I ran into some issues during my cleaning run. First, my new brewers pump didn't have enough head for my column, so I had to switch it out for another one that seemed to do the trick. Then, halfway through, the pump for my auxiliary Liebig condenser stopped working. It was frustrating, but at least I didn't have any issues with flooding.

Looking for another solution, I rummaged through my shop and found an old 25-foot coil of 1/2 inch copper tubing. My plan now is to put together a worm and flake stand and just run the Liebig as another preheater. It didn't seem like the shotgun condenser or the little 18 inch Liebig had enough knockdown power anyway. More updates to come.