Home Distiller

a reflux condenser usually uses water comming from a pump or the tap.
but has anyone ever thought of a bucket of water on top of the still with a coil going true. just like the cooling of a potstill


http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c69/s ... denser.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
the coil should not be too narrow
the methode of collection condensate can be chosen, the displayed methode is not the only one.
would this work?

It would work, but not for long. There's a simple equation involved here. Heat in = heat out. Without getting into the finer points like latent heat of vaporization etc., the heat you pump in at the boiler will need to be removed at the top coil. If it takes an hour to heat your boiler, then say 2 or 3 hours to distill the charge, then think of it as bringing to boil 3 or 4 pots of mash. Therefore the water bucket up top will need to be at least that big or more ( 3 or 4 times the size of your boiler) to transfer the heat. Or else you'll have to continually and manually swap out the hot water for cold water, just like the crude native stills in some places like Thailand. Sounds awfully like what we use a pump or tap for, no?

With a litre of water weighing a kilo, I don't like your chances of balancing 2 or 3 hundred kilos of water on top of a skinny copper column. Moscow circus may be able to, but distillers use smaller, safer ideas like coils, pumps, taps etc.

Bottom line, in theory it will work for a short time, in practice it's not feasable and design-wise its an engineering disaster waiting to happen. Not ragging on you, far from it. Lateral thinking is where innovation comes from. Keep it up.

Harry, I have one of those crude native stills in my kitchen. Swaping the water is a drag, but otherwise, I like it.

That was the style of my first condenser as well. I was just using a coffee can. The water got hot on the top 3" after about 20 minutes. I suppose that a tap could be added to drain off the hot water in the top and then fill it up with cold water. I switched over to the style with continuous water running. Less hassle.

I would not let the drum sit on the column, I would use something to hold it.
I had an oil drum in mind.

stoker wrote:I would not let the drum sit on the column, I would use something to hold it.
I had an oil drum in mind.

Should work.
When you have the coil in the bottom of the drum natural convection would cause the coolingwater to circulate.

Thinking about it, i don't think you need a coil; extending the column through the barrel should be enough. Then you have sufficient cooling surface and the column is open at the top to prevent pressure building up.

KJH

i would also let the coil open at the top.

If i don't use a coil to cool the vapors, is there then a big difference between a 42 and 22 mm tube? or I can make a 'modified gatlinggun'

The narrower pipe would be cooled down faster, but going from a 42 mm column to 22 mm condenser might, just might, cause somme channeling effect: Vapours pushed up the condenser with quite some speed. And they're more difficult to condense.
But since you're using a barrel there would be enough length, so i wouldn't worry.

A Gattlinggun-type condenser might be very efficient in this case. You could even take some T- and elbowcouplings and let the condenser branche out like a tree. But i think you will get a bit of a problem with the condensate not flowing back (very well). Could get by this by using 45 deg couplings instead of 90.

KJH

I think I'll try it one day,
the main problem is that it will be very high: ground to top of boiler: 1m, column:1.5 m , condenser 1.2(?)m
=3.7m
difficult to do it inside