Vacuum

This hobby is fun & enjoyable, but it is not tiddlywinks. Be safe!

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
CletusDwight
Bootlegger
Posts: 134
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:17 am
Location: Ain't sayin'

Vacuum

Post by CletusDwight »

I just came across a thread discussing vacuum distillation.

Had to put in a warning and I'm gonna repeat it here, no apologies. :eugeek:

To get a boiling point down to 50 degrees C you need to drop the pressure from 1 bar to about 0.1 bar
That's almost 90 percent.
Atmospheric pressure is about a ton per square foot. if you pump the air out, that's the pressure you're putting on the vessel walls. It's just the same as if you pressurised it to nearly 1 atmosphere instead.

Glass won't take it. A small bottle maybe, a 1 gallon demijohn might, but try it with a carboy and death is a real possibility.
When the vessel implodes, you get all the energy back in one lump that you spent in pumping out the air. Think of it as a massive airgun, loaded with broken glass and set to blow right in your face.
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Vacuum

Post by rad14701 »

I'd never attempt to apply vacuum to a glass vessel, aside from the vacuum obtained during the canning process... Back when I worked with air conditioning we used to pull about 32 inches of vacuum for a minimum of 45 minutes to boil the moisture out of the systems before charging... I'm not even sure some of the components used today could handle that much vacuum but I've been away from it for too long to say one way or the other...

Good advice, just the same...
HookLine
retired
Posts: 5628
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 8:38 am
Location: OzLand

Re: Vacuum

Post by HookLine »

Thanks for that, Cletus.
Be safe.
Be discreet.
And have fun.
CletusDwight
Bootlegger
Posts: 134
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:17 am
Location: Ain't sayin'

Re: Vacuum

Post by CletusDwight »

Post Reply