Pumped Reflux Side Column CM Still

[Windy City]

I have finished the control panel with exception of cleaning and tightening my wire management in the box. I have finished the wire management on the door. Hopefully I will finish the box side tonight. The power inlet and outlet of the box is all in conduit with three dedicated outlets for my elements.

The still copper is complete, polished, powder coated (clear), assembled and packed.
I still need to finish all my 1/2" copper for condensers and clean in place.
Install thermometer cords and tie off. Complete the 1 1/2" drain.
Hopefully one to two more weeks depending on free time.

[Yummyrum]

Not sure which is more sexy , the Still or the Control Panel

[Windy City]

Ok I finished the wire management for the control box tonight.
One step closer.

I appreciate the sentiment yummyrum.
I love building this stuff and when I first started I would draw out complete schematics. Now I just lay out all my components and just start wiring. It’s all in my head and actually very meditative.

[Saltbush Bill]

Plastic coated copper porn.

[HDNB]

Not sure which is more sexy , the Still or the Control Panel

this whole thing has me a wee bit jelly.

Windy, you may as well post a pic of that wort chiller, it's a friggin' work of art too.

[Windy City]

Plastic coated copper porn.

You are right about that.
I prefer highly polished copper, this is just my preference and I know others prefer patinaed copper.
I have a very good friend who owns a polishing company and he takes extreme pride in polishing my creations. I also have a very good friend who owns a powder coating company and his head guy also takes extreme pride in what he does. We made about six test pieces of polished copper before we found the right powder coating that did not dull the finish too much ( the original polish was crazy).
He taped off all the openings on all the copper with a special high temperature tape so no powder coat is on the inside. The only thing the alcohol sees is pure copper.

[Windy City]

Not sure which is more sexy , the Still or the Control Panel

this whole thing has me a wee bit jelly.

Windy, you may as well post a pic of that wort chiller, it's a friggin' work of art too.

Appreciate that HDNB but I think I will start a separate thread on how I build different condensers. Including tube in tube (the one you really like), worms and wort chillers. I have been meaning to do this for awhile but should finally have enough pics to do it.
Stay Tuned

[Saltbush Bill]

You are right about that.

Your giving away secrets now Windy.
I really only meant the copper wiring in the box.
Having said that I did think to my self that some of the other copper work might have had some sort of coating on it.

[Chauncey]

Wow man, that's awesome

[The Baker]

Dunno how it works but gee, it looks nice.

Geoff

[Windy City]

OK it is mostly done. Just missing a couple of pipe clamps and the blow off pipe for the relief valve.
Other than that I have done a water run and everything seemed to work the way it"s supposed to.
I have a large batch of Shady"s ready to strip in my other still and will pick up some vinegar this week so I can do my cleaning runs.
I won't be able to do the cleaning runs until weekend after next because we are hosting our sons graduation party next weekend and my better half has shut down all my extracurricular activities.
In the meantime here are some pics.

[Windy City]

And here is the finished still and control panel.
The gauges and clocks don't photograph well and are properly illuminated when viewed.

[Yummyrum]

What a beauty Windy .
I was just going to comment that all you needed was some labels , then saw the last pic complete with Traffolyte labels . That just tops it off.

Good luck with the Shady shine run .

[Wildcats]

One hell of a rig you got there sir. Very nice.

[bcook608]

To say that that still is a thing of beauty is a MASSIVE understatement!
Hopefully I'll get around to coming to see it some time if the offer is open.

I can't wait until I can get back into a dedicated stilling space! I've been fermenting, stilling, and aging in our master bedroom to keep things away from prying eyes so setting up and tearing EVERYTHING down every time is getting pretty old I've only done one strip this year and haven't had the time or privacy to do a spirit run.

[googe]

Awesome mate, everyones dream setup!! lots of hard work and thought there

[Windy City]

Awesome mate, everyones dream setup!! lots of hard work and thought there

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.
Means a lot coming from you googe I have always admired your builds.

[Windy City]

Ok it’s been awhile as I have not done much distilling this summer. It has been a busy summer and a hot one, didn’t need to add a bunch of extra heat to the house.
So sorry for the delay but here it is.
I did my cleaning runs shortly after finishing the build and spent some time learning how it wants to be run.
I recently ran 24 gallons of Shady’s Sugar Shine low wines at 40% ABV
I did a slow ramp up to full power over 15 minutes.
Full power = 26.5, 18.5 and 18.5 amps @ 240 volts.
It took approximately 30 minutes to come up to temperature to produce vapor.
I turned down the power to 18.9, 14 and 14 amps and let column stabilize for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes I turned down the flow meters to 0.13 gallons for deph #1, 0.7 gallons for deph #2 and 0.59 for the product condenser.
I produced 1.75 liters approximately every 15 minutes +/- of 95.6% ABV for the first 16 jars it then slowed down from 16 all the way up to 26 minutes for the last 4.5 jars when I shut down. The last jar (only 1 liter) dropped to 95.1% ABV.
I didn’t change the power or reflux throughout the run and just let it do its thing. Btw the reflux pump was set at 516 on the controller throughout the run.
This is a very slow setting as the the pump maxes out around 4200.
I probably could have used a smaller pump but the extra pumping capacity was appreciated during the clean in place procedure.
I am very happy with the results and believe with more experience I might be able to dial it in a little better.
I really enjoyed this build and am contemplating starting a separate company to start building equipment. I have thought about making a 6” version and even making a third column but that is outside hobby size but could work out well for a craft distillery.
Here is a screenshot of the Anton Parr EZ Dens.

[its5oclocksomewhere]

Windy city...absolutely impressive indeed!

I am new here...so not sure how this works with etiquette,
however, can I send you a private message please? From reading this thread about your build I'm sure my questions and conversation will not be a hindrance to you haha!

[Whotan]

Good afternoon to all of you. I also find your setup very interesting. I also recently thought about whether it would not be possible to build one or more packs of tubes. However, there are a few things I don't quite understand. Can you show on the pictures or as a drawing what the path of alcohol is? And what exactly do you need the pump for? And how do you make sure that the steam is hot enough. My idea was to add the second and third tube to the boiler because it also heats the pipe! But it's different with them. It's really super cool if you could record the steam away to understand it properly! I would like to recreate it alerdings with several pack of tubes! But first I have to see how they do it. Thank you for the beautiful pictures and what you have built!

[shadylane]

Nice build porn.

[googe]

The more I look at the pics the more I think fak there's been a lot of work and thinking done, amazing work!!

[harold01]

What a wild arse setup that is, congrats on a great job

[Whotan]

What exactly does the pump do and what do you have to pay attention to

[Yummyrum]

What exactly does the pump do and what do you have to pay attention to

Side by side is simply a really tall reflux column that is cut in half .

Now, in a tall reflux column vapour is forced up as it is under a certain pressure from the boiler .
The reflux falls back down through the packing by gravity .

Imagine you get a tallpacked column and offset half it . Ther vapour can still leave the top of the packing from the lower section and enter the bottom of the packing of the upper section . Likewise the reflux that is leaving the bottom of the upper section can simply flow across to the top of the Lower section . It is as if it were one tall packed column with just a bit of funky piping between .

So if you have cut a tall column in half and stuck it side by side , to maintain operation , the reflux that has fallen to the bottom of the “upper” section has to be pumped uphill to the top of the “lower” section so that again the reflux can continue down through the packing and eventually back into the boiler .

The vapour that comes from the top of the “lower” packed section can simply be piped down to the bottom of the “upper” packed section as it is still under pressure.

(Yes there are some side by side columns that don’t use a pump and simply let the reflux from the “upper” section return direct to boiler, but they are very inefficient compared to using a pump and they need a Deflag on the “lower” section to create enough reflux in it .Which means there is bugger all vapour available to the “upper” column .)

Back to the pump .
To maintain equilibrium in the two columns , the reflux that ends up at the bottom of the “upper” column needs to be pumped at a constant rate to the top of the “lower” column so that it is receiving a steady flow of reflux to rain down through its packing . So the pump speed has to be set just right to neither run too hard and run dry or run too slow and cause an accumulation in the bottom of the “upper” column

Something like this .But I have omitted the Deflag at the top of the Right Column as Windy said it would not be used .Also I have omitted the extra pipes and valves for bypassing the second column when not being used for clarity .

Apologies Windy if I have any of this wrong .

[Bolverk]

Windy,
Gorgeous set up!

What pump did you end up using?
Care to share a link?

[Windy City]

Thanks Yummy I could not have explained it better.

[Whotan]

Thank you so much! The explanation is really great. Even, I understood absolutely everything, even though English is not my language! The only thing I would be interested in now is whether the pump is a special pump especially for alcohol and solvents? And how did you decide on what performance you want it to have? I guess it won't need much power, will it

[Whotan]

I have one more question! If I would build a 3 pillar! Would I then connect the rewind in the same place? (From the 3rd pillar to the first pillar?)




Or would I go from the 3 to the 2 and from the 2 to the 1?

[LWTCS]

3 to 2 and 2 to 1

By passing the otherwise naturally occurring temp gradient can make the still behave badly.