Home Distiller

I'm almost sure someone thought of this already, but I've never come across it, plus ran one full page of searches--no joy. (So don't flame too hard!)

From the chemical equation, C6H12O6-->2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2, for every 92g of ethanol produced, 88g of CO2 is also produced. Since 1 gal ethanol = 6.3#, 6.0# of CO@ is also produced--fairly pure, at that.

So, I walked into my local "kegs-r-us" and asked: "How much to recaharge my CO2 for my keg-o-rator?" They said, "$10 for 5#!"

I know I have some "horticutural" friends who'd be happy to do buisness w/ someone who's lax on recordkeeping, especially if I lay down the whole "From a renewable resource...cricle of life...yadda, yadda" guilt trip.

I suspect you'd be lucky to get better than 50% of that, but (especially if you're making fuel or other super-cheap booze)...hell, the CO2's worth more than the fuel!

At the very least, no excuse for not having a "mother of all fire-supression systems!"

so you are asking whether its possible to collect the CO2 and then sell it on? personally I wouldnt bother because it is quite cheap and would have to be highly compressed to get it to liquid form. I think it would only really be worth it on an industrial scale

rangaz wrote:so you are asking whether its possible to collect the CO2 and then sell it on? personally I wouldnt bother because it is quite cheap and would have to be highly compressed to get it to liquid form. I think it would only really be worth it on an industrial scale

Trust me, many fuel producers capture their CO2. It is definitely "worth" it if you produce a lot of it, along with capturing it may be required in many areas (as this gets one around some of the air quality crap regulations some of the larger produces have to deal with). The "spent" grain and dregs are also captured, and sold as distillers grain (animal feed).

Since there is little overall energy "gain" in production of ethanol (from corn), without these secondary sources of "revenue", production of fuel ethanol from grains would not be cost effective.

But when you can $10 of grain, into $10 (or a little more) of fuel, and $4 of distillers grain, and X $ of CO2 collected, and you also grow the grain (thus do not have to outlay $$ to buy it, but only $$ to produce it), then things start to be cost effective.

However, for a home distiller to "capture" the CO2, is not really that likely to happen. If you do this, I think you would be best off to simply fill large bags/balloons with it, and release the CO2 inside of someones green house. That is, unless you can find some way to take that captured gas, and compress it. If you can do that, then you could fill up cylanders of it for a kegorator, or for making soda pop. But I bet the CO2 output from distilling is pretty "dirty".

H.

Run a plastic tube from the top of your fermentor into a mini greenhouse, when you are starting seedlings indoors.

I know mj growers who also make wine who use this idea each Spring.

Cheers,

Birdwatcher(I'm being treated as a guest today for some reason)

Why do things always seem to degenerate into illicit drugs with our users here? I find it very frustrating.

That's just great guys, equate small scale home distillation with pot growers, that'll do us a lot of good and garner some real positive press. Maybe meth labs can use co2 as well, we might have some potential markets opening up here. I wonder if the synthesis of LSD requires co2, yet another avenue for expansion.

There's plenty of legit uses for co2 including dry ice and so on but for some reason people think of these forums as some sort of wink wink, nudge nudge cover for druggies and their ilk.

Trust me, this isn't the place for it. I'd hate to have to start removing any posts which deal with illicit drugs but for some reason people just don't get the hint.

If you've got a greenhouse or pals who are so astute at illegal drugs then you already know that you don't need to do anything to recover co2 from those processes. Put your carboy into a greenhouse and let it bubble. This works for tomato and jalapeno plants too, incidentally.

This site, these forums, are not a thinly veiled cover for illicit drugs. When I read posts about illicit drugs I'm not smiling and nodding to myself thinking how cool you guys are.

While it's not legal to distill in most areas, possession of alcohol in itself is not a crime in most places on earth and I'm willing to bet hardly any of our users are set to get rich off selling alcohol. The potential tax revenue lost on a gallon of homemade booze isn't a back breaker for the government. Quite the contrary with druggies who reap insane profits off their illegal enterprises.

I'm sure there are sites devoted to ever furthering the ease and quality of drug production. Please take your druggie discussions there. We don't want this site to be thought of in the same breath as those guys. Period. End of discussion.

Well said, UJ.

blanik

Amen Uncle Jesse. We're producing a LEGAL substance that, in moderation, does not harm the human body. People who post things about ILLEGAL drugs on this forum are just giving the Feds (and the public for that matter) a reason to nod their heads and say that *"moonshiners"* are in league with drug distributors. That guy's post should be removed.

* - (I prefer the term "distiller" personally, I'm not making cheap, fusel oil swill. I'm making good whiskey!)

defcon4 wrote:People who post things about ILLEGAL drugs

I posted about CO2. I was unaware that it was an illegal drug.

We're producing a LEGAL substance

Try selling and advertising it. You'll find out soon enough exactly how legal it is.

If I understand correctly, your beef is that, while LEGALLY fermenting, I might consider LEGALLY capturing CO2 and LEGALLY selling it to someone who might later choose to use it ILLEGALLY. I'm not my brother's keeper! If you wanted to go after anyone who's ever sold anything that was later used in the manufacture of drugs, you'd have to shut down every grocery store, pharmacy, GNC and gardening center in the US!

Let me just state that--like any businessman--I'd pursue the greatest possible returns for CO2, but I wouldn't sell it where I knew for a certain fact that it was to be used illegally.

That guy's post should be removed.

People who can't resist the easy chance to brown-nose a mod should have their posts removed.

Jeez, if the word "horticulturalist" has got your panties in a bunch, just change it to "paintball enthusiasts." Everything else in the post is still valid.[/i][/quote]

Bcubed ... he wasn't referring to your post. He was talking about "George"'s post in reply to yours. UJ has asked many times that the forums be kept clean of posts about drugs. I think that's a fair request, since it's his board.

Just my two cents worth.

~r~

I posted about CO2.

don't play dumb

junkyard dawg wrote:

I posted about CO2.

don't play dumb

Because pleading ignorance may fool the letter of the law, it won't fool a jury for one second.

bcubed wrote:

That guy's post should be removed.

(quote) People who can't resist the easy chance to brown-nose a mod should have their posts removed. (quote)

I agree. Home distillation is legal in New Zealand and the use of the substance in question is legal in the Netherlands as our forum member recently pointed out. Two very civilized countries that have got their act together.

However, again, I apologize, and I will never introduce the subject again.

Have a good day,

G

birdwatcher wrote:the use of the substance in question is legal in the Netherlands as our forum member recently pointed out.

also kind of legalised in Belgium.

stoker wrote:

birdwatcher wrote:the use of the substance in question is legal in the Netherlands as our forum member recently pointed out.

also kind of legalised in Belgium.

Great, three countries with their heads screwed on right.

Thanks for the input pal, and have a good day/evening.

G

Medical marijuana is legal where I live. The local Sheriff lets you grow 6 plants if you have a prescription from a doctor.

I'm not trying to single anyone out or point fingers. There are plenty of other places online to discuss illicit drugs.

This isn't the place for it.

Thanks.

Well back on topic I found this a few months ago. I just dont like the idea carnonating beer with yeast.

If this has anything to do with Illegal drugs. I am nieve.

Co2 Capture

http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/carbonation/

if you have something constructive to add to the discussion of co2 recovery, please do so. I contacted people in the industry who told me it wouldn't even be close to worth my costs to recover my own co2. However, Sierra Nevada brewery recovers their own and makes dry ice and so on. I'm not really sure what the process involves. It's too bad there's not a really good commercial use for co2 yet because it's one of the real byproducts of fermentation.

You could run hose frum fermenter t inverted container
fild with h2o when it gets ful pump out to carbanate
beer in keg much loer psi than those contaner you by
there 2ooopsi dry ice hy psi co2 relesed to lo ps.

Dunderhead wrote:You could run hose frum fermenter t inverted container
fild with h2o when it gets ful pump out to carbanate
beer in keg much loer psi than those contaner you by
there 2ooopsi dry ice hy psi co2 relesed to lo ps.

At this point, you could use a nitro duck to compress it.... Then, Viola, never have to buy CO2 carts. for your homebrew kegging again.

you could use it for preservativ
four lo wines etc.

Breweries are one of the traditional sources of commercial CO2, and I suppose, distilleries are too. The other major sources are hydrogen and ammonia production from natural gas. I would expect UJ was told not to bother simply because of scale. The purification and storage infrastructure likely wouldn't be cost-effective.

Exactly the point, it's not nearly cost effective for me to recover co2 at this point.

In my area, CO2 is pretty cheap. I can run 2 kegs of beer in my garage for 6 months and only have to fill up my 5# bottle once.

/shrug

I guess it all depends on how much CO2 you use. To me, $10, twice a year to fill er' up isn't too much.

~r~