Condenser Temperature vs. Product Quality vs. Cost
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 11:51 pm
Hi,
The backdrop to the below questions are primarily logistical and goes about water usage / ease of cooling. I am soon to semi retire to a new home and have therefore not applied myself seriously to any cooling solution at my current home and I simply waste the cooling water. This situation is not ideal for me. I need to decide if I need to bring a permanent water supply into the distilling room (garage) and or if I should merely operate from a drum with a submersible pump and or a combination of both. The columns and risers are all 2" copper and the highest element wattage is 3 700W actual. As we are semi retiring we have also become more sensitive to waste and the cost thereof.
So I would not want to compromise product quality, which I don't think I will, but I have learnt from this forum that you don't know what you don't know, so thought I would bounce this of you all.
Talking Liebig now, could I safely say that irrespective of the coolant temperature and flow rate, that the condenser will have no impact on product quality?
I note that some distillers aim to maintain certain condenser output temperatures. Is there any technical merit in this that I may have missed or is the goal to ensure that from batch to batch that one eliminates process variations which is great for improving control. I am a great believer in process control on the basis that "if keep doing the same thing you can expect the same result", be that good or bad, but at least its consistent.
On the matter of feeding the cooling flow up the condenser to ensure that the condenser remains filled with water, I get that. However I am not to sure that I understand the technical consideration for having the temperature gradient present in the condenser. Do we believe that "shocking" the vapor by exposing the vapor to a very cold surface has a negative effect? Could someone please enlighten me on the real reason?
Talking RC now in a CCVM.
So in this instance I can understand how the RC temperature could have an impact on product quality as failure to create a full reflux would be self defeating when stacking the column. Again I see some distillers being rather specific on temperature and or flow rate from the RC.
I have tended to err towards a output temperature on both of circa 35oC (95oF and as a result flow rates have been rather high.
Any words of wisdom regarding the above and flows and temperatures?
The backdrop to the below questions are primarily logistical and goes about water usage / ease of cooling. I am soon to semi retire to a new home and have therefore not applied myself seriously to any cooling solution at my current home and I simply waste the cooling water. This situation is not ideal for me. I need to decide if I need to bring a permanent water supply into the distilling room (garage) and or if I should merely operate from a drum with a submersible pump and or a combination of both. The columns and risers are all 2" copper and the highest element wattage is 3 700W actual. As we are semi retiring we have also become more sensitive to waste and the cost thereof.
So I would not want to compromise product quality, which I don't think I will, but I have learnt from this forum that you don't know what you don't know, so thought I would bounce this of you all.
Talking Liebig now, could I safely say that irrespective of the coolant temperature and flow rate, that the condenser will have no impact on product quality?
I note that some distillers aim to maintain certain condenser output temperatures. Is there any technical merit in this that I may have missed or is the goal to ensure that from batch to batch that one eliminates process variations which is great for improving control. I am a great believer in process control on the basis that "if keep doing the same thing you can expect the same result", be that good or bad, but at least its consistent.
On the matter of feeding the cooling flow up the condenser to ensure that the condenser remains filled with water, I get that. However I am not to sure that I understand the technical consideration for having the temperature gradient present in the condenser. Do we believe that "shocking" the vapor by exposing the vapor to a very cold surface has a negative effect? Could someone please enlighten me on the real reason?
Talking RC now in a CCVM.
So in this instance I can understand how the RC temperature could have an impact on product quality as failure to create a full reflux would be self defeating when stacking the column. Again I see some distillers being rather specific on temperature and or flow rate from the RC.
I have tended to err towards a output temperature on both of circa 35oC (95oF and as a result flow rates have been rather high.
Any words of wisdom regarding the above and flows and temperatures?