Home Distiller

First off, I did a search and read for about 45 minutes and didn't find what I was looking for. Anyhow, I was wondering.... Would there be any benefit to plumbing a stainless airline into a boiler and having a stainless airstone at the end of it? Run it off an aquarium pump outside. Maybe make it steam up faster or I don't know, kinda lost track of thought, it's almost 3am right now haha

My personal opinion is that introducing oxygen into the boiler would be a bad idea. You're taking a fuel-rich (explosive) gas and introducing the only thing it needs for flammability, oxygen. The slightest flaw in your process or exposure to a flame/spark and boom.

Unless you're pumping concentrated oxygen from a bottle, you're not going to change combustion potential by pumping room air through the stone. Solubility of gasses in liquid decrease as temperature increases, so in a boiling still charge you're probably not even increasing dissolved oxygen significantly. I dont see any return on investment for your efforts involved.

Your reasoning is counterproductive, when distilling outside with a reflux column, most people will insulate the column and even the boiler to avoid heat loss, yet you want to do this intentionally by introducing the lower temperature ambient air?

Just a hunch but I'd bet it would be counter productive. I could see the air stone "helping" to lift vapors but what get's helped along may not be what you want at the temp it's currently boiling at.

IE you don't want the air stone lifting out tails components in your hearts run, or hearts/tails at the start of the run when you want heads.

Just let nature do it's thing the old fashion way.

I'd guess that you didn't find anything here because the relevant threads have been deleted for safety reasons.

And it doesn't seem to make much sense.

A stirrer would be a much better option.

I do not see any safety issue, because beside fuel and oxygen, you also need a spark to get a fire or explosion.
But it is no good either. Bubbling air into a fluid hardly adds energy, so it does not make the temperature rise.

Just theory here, but I would be more worried about the impact of an increase in vapor speed caused by adding air into the boiler. That could mess with separation in a fractioning column, and likely require that you run with less power to achieve the same level of separation.

With most stills the vapor created from boiling is offset by vapor collapsing in the condenser so the net airflow out of your condenser and/or the top of your fractioning column is not much. Adding air means you will have a positive airflow out. Not sure if that is a problem, but that is another result of pumping in air. Things would smell more, I guess.

Otis

I don't know how well a condenser works as a spark arrestor when you're blowing an air/fuel mix through it, so I'll let you go first. I rather like having a roof on my shed, especially when it's raining

NZChris wrote: ↑Wed Dec 25, 2019 3:36 pm I don't know how well a condenser works as a spark arrestor when you're blowing an air/fuel mix through it, so I'll let you go first. I rather like having a roof on my shed, especially when it's raining

You are certainly right about an air/fuel mix blown out your condenser.
But we may assume that the outlet of your condenser is always a cooled fluid, collected in a solid receptacle.

I wonder how a condensor works as a spark arrestor, indeed.
I am still have plans to try it in an experiment.

If you must do this kind of experiment, check it out with something like a saucepan with a flour paste seal out in the yard, not in a pressure cooker indoors.

Wow I didn't think it'd get this many replies! Was just wondering if there'd be any benefits or not. Some good information here in these replies that I wouldn't have known otherwise and also wouldn't even know how to ask for said info haha! Was I correct in asking here compared to other parts of the forum? My dumb buzzed question possibly save the embarrassment from other members/guests

I have a air stone mounted via a tri-clamp mounted in my boiler.
I mash, ferment and distill in the same tank.
Once I crash a mash to pitching temp I hit one button on my control panel and a oilless compressor (through filters) will run for a predetermined amount of time (generally about a half hour).
Other than that I would see no purpose to have a air stone in the boiler.