First Vapour Management
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:32 am
I made the mistakes so you dont have to... 
Design, made mistakes with the length of the take off arm and the diameter of the liebig.
If i did it again, I would still use 2" for the column, and 1.5 for the take off, but would bring it down to a liebig 0.75 outer with a 0.5 inner straight after the gate valve. Mine has too much diameter, which form a bit of a suction as the vapour collapses. Occasionally I get a bit of vapour coming out of the liebig coz of the size, but a bit of scrubber sorts that out.
It produces 95.5% throughout all of the heads and hearts. drops to 85% during the tails... If i really push it it will get down to 50%, but its not worth it. I get very little ethanol doing so.. Im very happy with it. Its not fast but its very clean, and as a vodka drinker it prodices wonderful spirit with no hangovers..
Some pics
Its pretty tall, I have to tie it to the roof... 25L boiler..
I wouldn't weld everything again either.. just the vapour take off, at least with solder you can change it later if you want to.
Stainless next time, but I AM going to get my value out of that aluminium pot (cost $130 AUS)
Design, made mistakes with the length of the take off arm and the diameter of the liebig.
It produces 95.5% throughout all of the heads and hearts. drops to 85% during the tails... If i really push it it will get down to 50%, but its not worth it. I get very little ethanol doing so.. Im very happy with it. Its not fast but its very clean, and as a vodka drinker it prodices wonderful spirit with no hangovers..
Some pics
- hmm... unweildy...
- It is all welded but had a little leak that needed solder
- Ready to go...
Stainless next time, but I AM going to get my value out of that aluminium pot (cost $130 AUS)
- wouldn't use aluminum again.. corrodes to quickly..
