Alan Manning still - How on earth does this work?

[sphaleron]

I found this British guy called Alan Manning on YouTube who is promoting his design of CM still that he claims is a highly effective reflux still. He claims he's been developing it for 15 years and he's selling them online. I can't figure out out why or how it works as he claims. The cold water input passes through a pipe in the bottom of the column, passes through a Liebig condenser and then through a pipe in the top of the column. So you've got cold water passing through the bottom and warm water passing through the top. Surely the thermal gradient along the column for reflux is the wrong way round? You need it cooler at the top than the bottom? Between the two pipes he's packed the column with marbles to reduce the HETP. He also starts ranting in this video about how someone on Ebay has ripped off his design - worth watching for your amusement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw7Unu1uyFg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow