Home Distiller

Hi all..

ive been popping in now and then checking forum same old, same old..
anyway also been working on the plate still, got a few brake thrus..

i just finished my test, column still. Its a 400mm X 50mm pyrex column with 80mm spaced, 8mm thick stainless plates.

this is the first test run on 20lt boiler..



here were some hickups..

i allowed the steam presure to build up before i started reflux.. " hand slowly pouring water into top of column"
this flooded the top plate but wouldnt drain through down comer becasue i had no airlock on lower plate, steam was forcing liquid up downcomer resulting in a flooded upper plate and reflux not draining to lower plate.

airlocks on the downcomers are needed to auto star reflux..
for the purpose of the test i overcame this by slowly pouring liquid as pressure was building up allowing for lower plates to flood slowly.

eaven tho we stoped the reflux there was enough liquid suspended to maintain operation for a few minutes before the liquid traped on the plate evaporated.



it was realy intresting to watch the cycle through the pyrex column.
"the new drunk'n man's water feature".. maybee i can sell it..

anyway here is what i done so far..
these are the plates 8mm thick, i used a tube as a center column to stack the plates and 9.5mm tube as down commers, later i will have thermometers inside the center column to mesure each plates temp.

i cut slots in the plate radials for the steam to pass..


these are the plates etc pulled appart.


anyway this was just a test to determin requierments to suspend liquid on each plate.

more to come..

and grats to MarkX on his project.. looking good.

anyway hit me with the commnets etc as llong as there on subject..
and any help hints or ideas are wellcome..

cheers..

you can use these images as long as you make refrance to homedistiller.org

nice, a fascinating still, perfect to stare at while distilling

do you already have a condenser?

that must have been a lot of work

Yes i do have a condensor its a 1M long stainles jacketed 4x 1/2" copper core lyberg style condensor which fits on the 2" 1.2M packed column you can see in the first photo to the right.

i havent fited the mounting flanges to the glass tube as yet because im waiting for the natural cork gasket to arrive.

there were a few basic designs i played around with first to help me understand what i need to do, but finaly i have a working prototype.

this one is intended to behave similar to having up to 4 thumpers on a pot still, i can take plates out as needed, so i can adjust the output purity.

anyway i have a grander 18 plate continuous column on the drawing board with a methanol striper on the top.

just need to do some more test and refine the disign of the plates a bit..

so i guess im fishing for comments and ideas..

Here's two suggestions:

Try dropping the height in between plates to 60mm. From photos it seems like that should work while allowing more plates for given height.

You could add a couple of small "nozzle" holes to the middle of the plate. 1-2mm hole should be enough to cause a vapor stream to shoot up while holding liquid back. This would increase vapor/liquid contact making the plate more efficient.

Cheers, Riku

I also suspect the plates are appearing to fail due to the temperature of the liquid being poured in from the top of the column. It will be very hard for the column to create an equilibrium

You sir, are my hero, I will keep an eye on this.

yeah you are more then likly right about the rate at which i was pouring the reflux back in but it was more so for the purpose of the test and it normaly would be ethanol which has a lower boiling point not water.

the mane purpose of the test was to see if it would flood or drop etc..
i was happy with the result as far as susspending the liquid on the plate, and i p[layed around with difrent pressures.

the plate seperation i will play around with later as this is easy to adjust the downcomers are only pressed into place.

the other thing i will be testing for next is the level of liquid to suspend on the plate..

Digging through the "antiquities" and came across this. Looks like some forward-thinking folks were hanging around here several years ago. Another thread with historical significance perforated plates

keep in mind that you cant run a 2" column very hard and expect the distilate to be nicely stacked on all the plates . High vapor velocity will hold all the juice on the top plate. ...turn 'er down a few notches next time you test and see how that works.

PS: I love it ....nice work.

WalkingWolf wrote:Digging through the "antiquities" and came across this. Looks like some forward-thinking folks were hanging around here several years ago. Another thread with historical significance perforated plates

Neat find WW. I clicked on it and thought to myself. How did I miss this thread? Then I looked over at the names commenting on it. Didn't know any of them? Where am i? Then looked at the dates.

This is a cool build. Wish he had gone further with it. In this thread anyway.

Oops, didn't notice the date

Always figgered Decoy would have been leading the charge on the explosion of popularity based on his earlier work...He was talking and doing very early on......

Rather silent now really.

That plate design was kinda funny.

Interesting as one reads back into the very early posts how what was once a very complex and unknown subject matter is now quite well known .....The hobby is growing forward.