StillDragon North America Bulletin Board

Fiji_Spirits

Here’s the plate design above and below the packed section.

Standard SD bubble cap plate and downcomer. Downcomer was disassembled and drilled the drain holes a size or two larger. Then weir height was reduced by half with a grinder then polished to remove burrs.

Plate has extra 6mm holes drilled and cleaned.

The idea was to recenter reflux on top and bottom and maybe give a bit more rectification without slowing the column down.

Seems like we can take off at azeo easily at 6lph with fine tuning can get 7.5 - 8.5. So hasn’t slowed us down any, and pretty much stayed at least the same speed with more cleaning and higher proof.

richard

What's that bulbeous thing just above your PC ??

Fiji_Spirits

@richard said: What's that bulbeous thing just above your PC ??

It’s an old RC. Using it as a second PC. Works amazingly well actually. I’m cooling almost 10kw with 2-3lpm of 26c water to the PC and 2.5lpm to the RC.

Thank goodness for modularity. The whole thing has been upgraded and expanded for 7 years. It doesn’t look all pretty but it does perform really well for a 4”.

Smaug

It's not just the foaming aspect.

Its also straight up added pressure to the space between the plates. When factoring in the liquid bed height, the smaller plate spacing will add otherwise unwanted pressure.

Can understand this principle better by filling a barrel 3/4 full with water and a barrel 1/4 full with water. Lock the barrel down tight and fill with air. The barrel that is 3/4 full will hold a lot less air and therefore come to max pressure far more quickly.

Same thing happens with plate spacings liquid bed can be equal but head space reduces the pressure an so reduces the likelihood of hydraulic pressure forcing liquid from the lower plates on to higher plates. The taller spacing allows for much faster run speeds.

Fiji_Spirits

Ah. I get it. I had to work with that this weekend shifting the 4 zones of pressure difference in my column. I thought it would have messed with me more (and it has in the past) but by choosing where to put the higher and lower pressure areas I was able to get it to work well. When I shifted them in the other direction it was way slow.

It’s not optimal as you rightly point out, but it was very viable for my ceiling limited application. Of course my still is working kind of reverse to a continuous. Maybe that’s why.

Smaug

Sure. Less pressure at the top of the apparatus.

It takes less heat ( = pressure) to flash the alcohol at the top of the apparatus than it does closer to the kettle.

The smaller spacing can certainly be made to work but will affect behavior/speed.

I keep waiting to hear how the used car salesman over on ADI is going to enlighten the community with his rig that is so much shorter ( and so much better) than the "competition" and was designed by an unnamed engineer from a country that doesn't exist anymore.....Perhaps he reckons a vaccum still will strip at the same speed? Even if it can, the vaccum still will make a far less superior whiskey product as there would be little to no maliard reaction.

grim

Stripping fast on a batch vac still will require a huge PC, or a large constant supply of chilled water, probably both. Well, or huge ethanol losses through the vac pump. The dramatic increases in vapor speed as pressure drops means column size needs to increase dramatically.

There is no free lunch. You are simply shifting the energy balance from the heating side to the cooling side. For most people, heating is far easier than cooling.

In addition, dealing with vacuum vessels, the initial cost is absurdly high. Keep in mind that vacuum vessels are treated like high pressure vessels from an inspection and regulatory perspective.

Smaug

@grim said: Stripping fast on a batch vac still will require a huge PC, or a large constant supply of chilled water, probably both. Well, or huge ethanol losses through the vac pump. The dramatic increases in vapor speed as pressure drops means column size needs to increase dramatically.

There is no free lunch. You are simply shifting the energy balance from the heating side to the cooling side. For most people, heating is far easier than cooling.

In addition, dealing with vacuum vessels, the initial cost is absurdly high. Keep in mind that vacuum vessels are treated like high pressure vessels from an inspection and regulatory perspective.

Sure.

The used car salesman over there was referring to some newly designed continuous rig that has very short plate spacing and therefore doesn't need as much ceiling height as other more conventional systems.

Looking forward to seeing what he is running his mouth about.

Fiji_Spirits

I feel like there is plenty of room for innovation in the field. We can take from CBD, biofuels, chemistry, food science, physics, agriculture, biology, math, moonshining, computer science, electronics and so much more.

I’ve always been attracted to outliers because they push technology forward. Guys like Istill take basic distilling equipment and add tech and support and some science and come up with products that distillers find attractive to get into at the mid levels.

Other guys sell used cars and dreams but those have value too, as they make folks revisit previous conceptions to see if new tech has created solutions.

I’ve kind of wondered for a few years why SD didn’t get into CBD processing. It’s a pretty lucrative market “mining the miners” although I think its peaking now in USA if not Canada.

grim

As soon as the FDA starts regulating CBD, the market will crater.

Smaug

We sell a few bits and bobs in that space. But honestly, the time to get in was when we were far more interested in keeping up with this industry.

We're trying to get good at what we do rather than jump on to the next greatest thing.

grim

Supercritical co2 extraction for gin is hooooooot

grim

On the bright side, you can decaffeinate your own coffee too.

Smaug

@grim said: On the bright side, you can decaffeinate your own coffee too.

Decaf coffee? Crazy talk.....

grim

As I suck down my 4th or 5th cup this morning.

Smaug

I have one cup.

But my pre workout drink has 300 mg per scoop !!!!

Fiji_Spirits

The next big thing is to look at is the creation of cbd using yeast. A set of yeast cultivar systems might be a highly sought after thing

lowball

@Fiji_Spirits said: The next big thing is to look at is the creation of cbd using yeast. A set of yeast cultivar systems might be a highly sought after thing

Unfortunately this process, and yeast with the appropriate gene modifications is patented in the US already.

grim

Impossible Burger is using yeast to produce Heme (like hemoglobin) - fermented in giant tanks - to make its soy protein “bleed” and taste like blood in meat.