Column diameter

[Stingrayjay]

I am looking around for large diameter copper tube and most suppliers in uk only go up to 54 mm / 2inch

Would i be losing out by buying this size , should i continue to search for 3 or 4 inch ??

I would be looking more towards making vodka i think mostly , can reflux be forced into 54mm dia'

Cheers for advise on this , i did search around to see if this question has been posted before :-/

[myles]

54mm is the standard for a reflux colum in the UK. Using conventional packing (stainless scrubbers) it should be good for about 0.75 litres/hour @ 1.5kW

If you incorporate the various "tuning" techniques you can push the output to 2-3 litres/hour.

If you go down the SPP route you can use more power and get equivalent purity on a shorter column. Increasing diameter does not improve the purity but it does increase the production rate.

[Stingrayjay]

Thankyou ,
If you could just let me know what spp is ?

I will run with a 54mm build and if that big bit of tube crosses my path i will grab it for a future biggy

[Stingrayjay]

Found it spiral prismatic packing ,
Another word for pot scrubbers i guess

[myles]

Found it spiral prismatic packing ,
Another word for pot scrubbers i guess

NO. Pot scrubers are the standard home packing material. SPP is much more like a commercial packing material. It is more expensive but a lot more efficient. It can tollerate higher vapour speeds which is why it can be used on a smaller diameter column than scrubbers.

You can get the same sort of performance with a column 1/3 of the packed height when using SPP when compared to conventional scrubbers. But it is more expensive.

[Stingrayjay]

I am soaking this all up like a sponge , so what kind of shop would i find a bag of SPP , i know i should get some in stock now

Cheers
Jay