Extra Plates or Packed Column?

punkin

I'm sorry nobody has chimed in mate as there is a lot of these rigs around and i sell the packed sections every week. @rossco , @Philter , @crozdog , all run them in 4" off the top of my head, i have a feeling @vooharmy has a packed section for his 5" unit, but it's 4".

luckyliqueur

Just a quick comment on boiler size.

I have two old hot water tanks waiting to be made into boilers. The S/S one is 700L and the copper one is about 500L from memory.

They're both going to be cut down ~ I don't see why I should go under 300L. I'll use the copper one for the stripper and the other to make the neutral. I have sufficient space to have both set up and I'll only need to use them up 2 or 3 times a year.

It's highly unlikely I would ever fill either up to the max. More likely to be 200L into the stripper and 100L to make the neutral.

So in the near future I'll either be doing multiple runs on the "vodka product" to get Neutral or I'll use a TC section on top of a plated column.

When the time comes to retire from active distilling life, I'll on-sell these boilers and switch back to a keg and Ace of Hearts.

Anavrin

Hi Guys

Just thought I'd chip in here, I currently run a VM setup for neutral, I have a 50lt boiler, 3kw element and a 2-4-2 SD torpedo under a 900mm packed 2" Section, output isn't what I would call impressive, about 1.2lt/hr at 94%

However I'm hopping for some improvement, I have just invested in some new gear from @SDeurope, I've purchased at 3 plate baby crystal dragon to mount on my torpedo, a 510mm 2" section for packing and a big baby Dephlegmator, so I'll soon be into SD hybrid territory, I planning to add more plates in the future but I will test it with a combination of different packed column heights first, I value high ABV for neutral but a faster collection rate is a big advantage, I'm thinking, less packing on my plates will give a better collection rate but possibly lower than ideal ABV and more packing on the same plates will get a higher ABV but slower collection, somewhere in the middle of it all I hope to find the answer to your question.

Is be interested to know from you guys what sort of product collection rate/ABV I might expect with my new setup, I'm just going to use SS Scrubies for packing at fist but I also have a load of 6mm ceramic raschig rings to try also.

punkin

1.2l an hour is about right for a 2" packed column. 3.5-4l an hour for 3".

Kapea

650mL - 750mL per hour running 10-12% wash on copper 2" x 48" worth of SS scrubber packed column, mounted to a 2"x4"x2" torpedo, mounted to a propane-fired half barrel sanke keg boiler.

1.5L - 1.75L per hour running 35% low wines on the same rig.

Both scenarios producing azeotrope.

crozdog

like Punkin says, I use a 510mm scrubby packed section on top of a dash 1 (see pics in the manual). IMHO this is a far simpler cheaper way to add a lot more HETP in a lot less height.

I use this rig with TPW to make fantastic vodka / neutral. I typically strip (discarding feints) then do a spirit run.

I also use this setup to reclaim alcohol from all my collected feints, but as you would expect, get a lot more fores, heads & tails when doing a feints run, so end up with a lot of jars on the bench.

I typically don't carbon filter the output from a TPW run, but do use carbon on the output of a feints run as I have found it smells a bit, even though it tastes OK. Carbon fixes that.

I can't recall my output rate, but do know it is a lot quicker than my old 2" VM!

I would highly recommend using a packed section to make a hybrid for vodka / neutral. Even though I use SS scrubbies, others are getting great results using scoria as their packing.

Kapea

Check that production rate I gave above. I looked in my notes; 1.5L - 1.75L per hour is what I get with my Carter head mounted on my plateless torpedo running low and slow for a botanicals run.

My VM column running a low wines charge at 35% produces 1.2L - 1.4L per hour.

Scoria... That is amusing to me. Round here it's just laying around, free to pick up off of the ground. Cheap as dirt, literally.

Sadi

@luckyliqueur said: . . . Sadi are you listening?

I am listening mate. :)

I don't have any constructive additions to what has already been said... My trials are mostly aimed to get the best product, but I understand what you are looking for as my 4" seems to me as "not big enough" these days. :))

I usually get around 2Lt/h when I am doing vodka runs. And going faster than that would not help for quality with my setup.

Cheers

Myles

Quality and personal choice is the issue here. I know of someone that runs his packed 4" column at just 1 liter per hour when he wants his "Canadian Snowflake Vodka".

googe

I think packing is for a quick easy way to achieve it, physical plates, you can work with them in different configurations to achieve a superior product to packing. Like the end product from a blended product from a packed column to a plated column where the blending is achieved is a different animal.

luckyliqueur

@Sadi Hi there; I sort of knew you'd be listening. Because you are a configuration Ninja, I thought it was worthwhile "provoking" a response :)

I'm gonna rely on what @Lloyd said on a thread awhile back. That is to do multiple runs . . . . . washing out the impurities with each run. I'll start with just the plates and see how it goes.

I have to do better than 1litre per hour.