New Pot Up and Running
Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 7:42 pmWell, I finally made it to the finish line and my new 50lt Pot Still has had it's first distilling run.
The wash was junkahol made from an old Alcotec 24 turbo
that has been lurking in my garage since I banned turbos last year. I used 6kg sugar and made the wash up to 30lt. The end result was a wash of 11.5% which was fine for a first cleaning run.
The boil took a total of 1hr 20mins.
From the point of first product emerging from the condenser I played about with the power controller to see the effect on product flow. I was very surprised at how quickly a change in the power input to the 2Kw element was reflected in the product output rate. The initial strength of the distillate was 64%ABV
Once product started to emerge from the condenser I reduced the power input to 80% and this had little effect on the flow rate which was a steady trickle. See pics
However, reducing the power input to 60% had a dramatic effect that was visible in approx 5 seconds and the flow rate had halved. A further reduction of power to 40% reduced the flow to a drip that I measured as being 500ml/h.
At the end of the run I had collected 6.6lt of strip @54%ABV - I let it run all the way down to 15%. Once this was finished I was able to open the filler cap and pour it all back into the boiler for a second run.
The second run was to see how much I could increase the strength of the product by running at a slow rate. Running at 40% I was able to collect the initial distillate at 72%ABV.
A third run was made with the same recycled wash and this final run was to record max stripping rate. This worked out at 2.64lt/h
Coolant control was a doddle. I ran my Liebig at a trickle not much more than the distillate flow you can see above and never had to adjust that although I did turn off the flow near the end of the third run to reset it and see what point was the minimum coolant flow. I didn't measure it but I estimated it to be around 2lt/h.
In the top pic you can see a fitting sticking up on top of the Pot Head. This was intended for a thermometer but in the end I decided against using one there. I've run my Airstill for almost 2 years on taste and smell and I see no good reason to change now. I do have a 3" Dial Thermometer in the boiler which I think is necessary for power conservation.
Last thing: The Armaflex insulation works brilliantly. The temp loss, with the boiler at sustained max temp, was 15oC. I used two digital thermometers to measure this. The one on the left below was inside one of the securing straps and pressed into the outer surface of the Armaflex and the other was recording ambient air temperature in my garage in the area of the boiler. (Notice the ambient temp, 22.5oC
its been a regular heatwave here for the past two days. If this keeps up we might even have a summer - some chance!)
Very satisfied and looking forward to first real run on Tuesday next.
AM
The wash was junkahol made from an old Alcotec 24 turbo
that has been lurking in my garage since I banned turbos last year. I used 6kg sugar and made the wash up to 30lt. The end result was a wash of 11.5% which was fine for a first cleaning run.The boil took a total of 1hr 20mins.
From the point of first product emerging from the condenser I played about with the power controller to see the effect on product flow. I was very surprised at how quickly a change in the power input to the 2Kw element was reflected in the product output rate. The initial strength of the distillate was 64%ABV
Once product started to emerge from the condenser I reduced the power input to 80% and this had little effect on the flow rate which was a steady trickle. See pics
However, reducing the power input to 60% had a dramatic effect that was visible in approx 5 seconds and the flow rate had halved. A further reduction of power to 40% reduced the flow to a drip that I measured as being 500ml/h.
At the end of the run I had collected 6.6lt of strip @54%ABV - I let it run all the way down to 15%. Once this was finished I was able to open the filler cap and pour it all back into the boiler for a second run.
The second run was to see how much I could increase the strength of the product by running at a slow rate. Running at 40% I was able to collect the initial distillate at 72%ABV.
A third run was made with the same recycled wash and this final run was to record max stripping rate. This worked out at 2.64lt/h
Coolant control was a doddle. I ran my Liebig at a trickle not much more than the distillate flow you can see above and never had to adjust that although I did turn off the flow near the end of the third run to reset it and see what point was the minimum coolant flow. I didn't measure it but I estimated it to be around 2lt/h.
In the top pic you can see a fitting sticking up on top of the Pot Head. This was intended for a thermometer but in the end I decided against using one there. I've run my Airstill for almost 2 years on taste and smell and I see no good reason to change now. I do have a 3" Dial Thermometer in the boiler which I think is necessary for power conservation.
Last thing: The Armaflex insulation works brilliantly. The temp loss, with the boiler at sustained max temp, was 15oC. I used two digital thermometers to measure this. The one on the left below was inside one of the securing straps and pressed into the outer surface of the Armaflex and the other was recording ambient air temperature in my garage in the area of the boiler. (Notice the ambient temp, 22.5oC
its been a regular heatwave here for the past two days. If this keeps up we might even have a summer - some chance!) Very satisfied and looking forward to first real run on Tuesday next.
AM
but I've taken it off now. I checked the water jacket during the cleaning runs and the pipe never got hot more than two inches below the top 'T' fitting.
Yours will be well worth the wait too.
