Hi, just had the still running, and am doing 1litre/11 minutes with a temp of 78.5c and 90 ish % abv. I should clarify, the columns I'am using are, coiled re-flux condensers.
That sounds similar to my own experience. What is the diameter and length of your rectifying column? If you're aiming for a higher alcohol concentration then I suspect that you're running the still too fast. If you're measuring surface temperature then it's probably going to be a couple of degrees below core temperature. With my column which is about 28 mm in diameter, I run it at about 600 mL of wash per hour and about 76°C surface temperature to get a product concentration of over 96%.
Hi, talking about pumps,have a look at the ulka pump, they are in coffee machines, steam generators. I have been using one (16w) with a dimmer switch to pump the wash. I put the inlet in a fine filter bag to stop it getting clogged.I hear what you are saying about the column temperature, I have 4 re-fluxing columns hooked up in series, once balanced I get about 91% abv out of a 13% abv wash. I use a pid at the top of the column for the fine control. My setup is quite modular and I changing things around, to see what works best.My input is about a 1000 w of steam. Cheers
No I have not come across Ulka pumps before. I've had a look at them. They are vibrating pumps but I'm not sure how they're controlled. I see they can develop pretty high pressures which means they're probably able to overcome partial blockages easily. That's a problem I've had with peristaltic pumps. 1,000 watts of steam is a lot more than I use. What is the diameter of your columns? I use a single 28 mm column that's about 1500 mm long. That requires about 150 watts of steam produces spirit at 96%+.
I use 24/40 glass ware for the column, where the narrowest point is about 17 mm and 1800 mm long. I control the pumps with dimmer switches,they don't seem to have a huge range of control, but lots of things to play with, pump size, some think better than a dimmer switch. At 1kw I am distilling about 10 litres of wash an hour or so. I will time it tonight to get a accurate number.The wash I am doing now is 180 litres and want to distill at least 3 times
@@Jack-It-UP what kind of column are you using? Is it a Vigreux? You have a high length to width ratio of 90 or so. How do you arrange stripping and rectifying? do you inject wash part way up the column and steam at the bottom?
@@tight1449 Hi, at the moment I am using 3 re-flux columns and one column full of rashig rings.Each column is about 450mm. They sit on top of a coil of 19 mm by 6m copper pipe,(idea I got from you,but yours was square)I feed the steam into the lower end of the coil( I have glass fittings to let the water drain out) and the column sits on top of the coil. I inject the wash in about a 100mm down from the top of the coil. Now that I have the steam generator sorted,it runs with very little attention.By adjusting the pid temp at the top by a degree or so I can get the abv to move accordingly, things hum at about 90-91% abv for this set up. I am looking forward to you posting some more on your jam jar condenser or is it a column, so I can borrow some more of your ideas. I nearly got some snyder columns at the right price but it fell through. Some feed back on the jam jars would be great, I can see some potential problems with what materials to use. Cheers
Thanks I've seen it. Very clear and a lot better made than mine! What alcohol concentration of the waste are you getting? I had no luck using a sloping tube as a rectifying column and so I inject wash between the sloping tube and the vertical column but then my sloping tube is only 3m long and half an inch in diameter. To get a higher proof product I would suggest turning off the cooling water to the rectifying condensers and reducing the wash feed rate to around 5 ml per minute. What is the output from the PID controlling?
@@tight1449 If I put the wast through again it takes forever to get anything out ,on this run it took about 20 minutes to get 50 ml of 85% abv. I would estimate the wast wash would have an abv of less than 5%. If I made another analyser coil I would space the coils out ,a bit like a spring, and go to 25 mm pipe. The pid controles the cooling water to the rectifying condensers,which are hooked up in series.I did try your idea of having a condenser at the bottom of the rectifier filled with methanol, but found that the coiled re-flux columns in series worked as well, with out having two separate cooling systems.I understand runing 5ml a minute @ 150 watts is good going, but I am pumping 1kw into this, and it is just a striping run.I will take the coil of the bottom and put the pot on, and run the spirit again at about 40/50%, at that abv I have no trouble getting 95 + %.
@@Jack-It-UP OK so the high flow rate is for stripping. Do you have a 0-10% hydrometer or a pycnometer bottle? I aim to get the waste well under 1% as even 1% is around 10% of alcohol loss. Using a precision hydrometer is a bit of a pain as you need an extra large parrot. A 10ml pycnometer bottle and mg weighing scales gives better accuracy at lower cost but is more fiddly to do. Waste alcohol is the key parameter in continuous stripping and might be useful to measure.
Hi, just had the still running, and am doing 1litre/11 minutes with a temp of 78.5c and 90 ish % abv. I should clarify, the columns I'am using are, coiled re-flux condensers.
That sounds similar to my own experience. What is the diameter and length of your rectifying column? If you're aiming for a higher alcohol concentration then I suspect that you're running the still too fast. If you're measuring surface temperature then it's probably going to be a couple of degrees below core temperature. With my column which is about 28 mm in diameter, I run it at about 600 mL of wash per hour and about 76°C surface temperature to get a product concentration of over 96%.
Hi, talking about pumps,have a look at the ulka pump, they are in coffee machines, steam generators. I have been using one (16w) with a dimmer switch to pump the wash. I put the inlet in a fine filter bag to stop it getting clogged.I hear what you are saying about the column temperature, I have 4 re-fluxing columns hooked up in series, once balanced I get about 91% abv out of a 13% abv wash. I use a pid at the top of the column for the fine control. My setup is quite modular and I changing things around, to see what works best.My input is about a 1000 w of steam. Cheers
No I have not come across Ulka pumps before. I've had a look at them. They are vibrating pumps but I'm not sure how they're controlled. I see they can develop pretty high pressures which means they're probably able to overcome partial blockages easily. That's a problem I've had with peristaltic pumps. 1,000 watts of steam is a lot more than I use. What is the diameter of your columns? I use a single 28 mm column that's about 1500 mm long. That requires about 150 watts of steam produces spirit at 96%+.
I use 24/40 glass ware for the column,
where the narrowest point is about 17 mm and 1800 mm long. I control the pumps with dimmer switches,they don't seem to have a huge range of control, but lots of things to play with, pump size, some think better than a dimmer switch. At 1kw I am distilling about 10 litres of wash an hour or so. I will time it tonight to get a accurate number.The wash I am doing now is 180 litres and want to distill at least 3 times
@@Jack-It-UP what kind of column are you using? Is it a Vigreux? You have a high length to width ratio of 90 or so. How do you arrange stripping and rectifying? do you inject wash part way up the column and steam at the bottom?
@@tight1449 Hi, at the moment I am using 3 re-flux columns and one column full of rashig rings.Each column is about 450mm.
They sit on top of a coil of 19 mm by 6m copper pipe,(idea I got from you,but yours was square)I feed the steam into the lower end of the coil( I have glass fittings to let the water drain out) and the column sits on top of the coil. I inject the wash in about a 100mm down from the top of the coil.
Now that I have the steam generator sorted,it runs with very little attention.By adjusting the pid temp at the top by a degree or so I can get the abv to move accordingly, things hum at about 90-91% abv for this set up. I am looking forward to you posting some more on your jam jar condenser or is it a column, so I can borrow some more of your ideas. I nearly got some snyder columns at the right price but it fell through. Some feed back on the jam jars would be great, I can see some potential problems with what materials to use. Cheers
@@Jack-It-UP What is the rate of wash injection and steam flow? Sounds as though is you dial back you will get higher proof.
This is my set up ruclips.net/video/WPWG3lMla9I/видео.html
Thanks I've seen it. Very clear and a lot better made than mine! What alcohol concentration of the waste are you getting? I had no luck using a sloping tube as a rectifying column and so I inject wash between the sloping tube and the vertical column but then my sloping tube is only 3m long and half an inch in diameter. To get a higher proof product I would suggest turning off the cooling water to the rectifying condensers and reducing the wash feed rate to around 5 ml per minute. What is the output from the PID controlling?
@@tight1449 If I put the wast through again it takes forever to get anything out ,on this run it took about 20 minutes to get 50 ml of 85% abv. I would estimate the wast wash would have an abv of less than 5%. If I made another analyser coil I would space the coils out ,a bit like a spring, and go to 25 mm pipe. The pid controles the cooling water to the rectifying condensers,which are hooked up in series.I did try your idea of having a condenser at the bottom of the rectifier filled with methanol, but found that the coiled re-flux columns in series worked as well, with out having two separate cooling systems.I understand runing 5ml a minute @ 150 watts is good going, but I am pumping 1kw into this, and it is just a striping run.I will take the coil of the bottom and put the pot on, and run the spirit again at about 40/50%, at that abv I have no trouble getting 95 + %.
@@Jack-It-UP OK so the high flow rate is for stripping. Do you have a 0-10% hydrometer or a pycnometer bottle? I aim to get the waste well under 1% as even 1% is around 10% of alcohol loss. Using a precision hydrometer is a bit of a pain as you need an extra large parrot. A 10ml pycnometer bottle and mg weighing scales gives better accuracy at lower cost but is more fiddly to do. Waste alcohol is the key parameter in continuous stripping and might be useful to measure.