Water Tank as a Pot Distillation Unit

[amaark]

I'm new to this wonderful pass time.

I don't know the pro's and con's of my suggestion, it has probably being suggested and tried before but I can't find anything.

After all that here goes.

We have just had our bathroom refitted, SWMBO decided it was time for a change.

The fitters laid the old hot water cylinder out the back and it got my grey matter ticking.

Firstly when all the connections are fitted it becomes a pressure vessel, there are ports to fit a heating element, it's made of copper, it's fully insulated and there is a secondary heat exchanger.

So:

Construction

1. We connect a heater element in it's socket at the bottom of the tank.
2. Place a drainage tap on the bottom pipe fitting (where the cold water feed would have been)
3. Connect the hot water feed (very top of tank) to the upper heater coil connection.
4. Connect a condenser to the lower heater coiler connection and drain to the collection vessel.


Operation (Maybe)

1. Remove the blanking cap where the upper electric heating element would fit and fill up. Put blanking cap back.
2. Switch on (obviously).
3. The unit will come up to temperature and start to produce vapour. This vapour will travel through the heating coil / exchanger starting to cool and condense whilst helping to heat the liquid in the unit.
4. Partially liquefied condensate will travel along through the "traditional" water cooled still into the collection vessel.

Cleaning Out

1. Open the filler point, for flushing water.
2. Open the bottom tap to drain off.

I am not in a position to try this as I am working overseas but was interested to hear any thoughts.

It's an idea, I'm new to this and it seemed plausible to me.

Please feel free to shoot me down I have probably made a glaring error, but I am interested in any feedback. (positive and negative)

That's it lunch over back to the sun and sand.

[YHB]

Firstly your mention of a pressure vessel scares me - when your tank was in service in your home it was not a pressure vessel, there was an expansion pipe leading to your cold water tank.

Under no circumstances should you use a boiler as a pressure vessel, sorry if I misunderstood your intent but those words gave me the shivers.

Secondly if the fitters have not already staked claim to it ( traditionaly scrap copper pays for their Xmas party ) keep the tank, the copper will come in useful many times over.

Thirdly I do not know how long it has been in service but I will bet that the inside is in need of a good clean that cannot be done through the existing connections.

There are plans available to make copper stills / boilers when you decide what you want.

I had a tank like this, I cut the top and bottom off, split the center portion up the side and have stored the three pieces for future use.

[amaark]

Brian,

You can stop shivering. A better term is probably to use "a sealed vessel".

I take your point about the pre-cleaning requirements, prior to using it in this manner.

It was only an idea as I couldn't find any references of the use of a tank like this. I'll keep thinking

[chill]

Ian Smiley describes such a setup in his book on Corn Whiskey. Google "ian smiley making pure corn whiskey".

Chuck

[amaark]

Thanks Chill, I'll have a look.

I'm looking for a pot which can be used for both stripping (for neutrals prior to a spirit run) and flavoured washes.

I was thinking about the T500 but too many people (along with the manufacturer) say it can't be modified so I keep looking, thinking and researching different ideas.

This was just another crazy thought to add to the other several hundred.



Cheers

[KerryW]

I read the book last night,, while suffering from a head cold, so I might need to read it again. I did like the way he used the old water heater for his boiler, and seeing that I just missed the bulk garbage in out\r region I will have to wait to go scrounging till next spring,, or see if one of the local builders can help out,, I might have the time and patience to get one running this summer

[Phantom]

Little things come to mind........

Like yes you could use it with immersion heating type elements, but you may have to bypass any temperature controller stage because they typically get to the temperature set then switch off, so you'd have to be able to set the heat to achieve a constant boil to produce the vapour consistantly enough for reflux equilibrium etc.....

Tanks have routinely been coated in sprayed on foam for a good number of years so whether the foam will stand the heating above the 100C required for the boil ? Or whether its old enough to not have the integral foam sprayed jacket ?

Clean it with a hot vinegar mix as that would, well, should remove any internal scaling.....