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Another New Guy

Greetings to All,

Quick introduction. I have followed this forum since the beginning of the year and am very impressed with the knowledge base and most certainly with the in depth professionalism. When I was young my brother and I designed, engineered, financed, and built an alcohol fuel plant in New Mexico, USA. The system was based on 30" columns and produced 3000 gallons a day (when something didn't break). I took it to 199.5 % ABV via a molecular sieve for blending with gasoline. After a year of successful operation, I sold the plant at the "Federal tax break peak" and returned to piloting Big Jets for FedEx, I am now retired after 35 years of burning jet fuel flying around the world.

The passion for making alcohol returned and after studying the batch process vs constant flow, I put together a 4" bubble cap system. I use a radiator and chiller combination recirculating a 25 gallon reservoir water system. I use a 5500kw 13 gallon boiler to supply the column. It produces 190 ABV +/- at 3 to 3.5 L/Hr. I found that the universe of knowledge about distilling available now to be absolutely incredible in comparison to the early 1980's. I even got an Arduino programmed to handle the water indicator from this wealth of information available. I am regretful to say that the main column is not from Still Dragon (I found a bargain ss304 in the Ozark Mountains not far from here). I do, however have some Still Dragon parts in the system (PC, Irrigation, Parrot, & Surge).

I would like to commend the main forum contributors for their selfless giving of knowledge and advice. I have benefited greatly from this. I just finished a run today of 5th gen UJSSM and the midsection was smooth enough to sip as is !! Keep up the incredible work .... CB

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Comments

  • Welcome, may I say I just love the smell of Jet A in the morning... :-j

  • Sounds like you've got plenty to share too.
    Got any details on your flow meter?
    I'm in real need of one that can reliably read 0 to 1L/min (5L/min max). I got one working that does pulsed output but it shit's itself under 1L/min

  • edited September 2015

    By pulsed output do you mean a rotating wheel that triggers the indicator? If so, that is what I put together. It is called a hall effect sensor. What I did, was couple a 2 to 20 lpm hall effect sensor to the arduino and then coded (royal pain for an old guy) and calibrated to the actual pump flow accounting for all friction losses . I don't think the range you are working in will be easy to be very accurate. The faster the sensor wheel rotation the more accuracy. That means you would need a very small diameter system, At least through the sensor. I went to the Adruino because the ready made flow meter was difficult to read but it was readable down to very low values. This ebay listing may work for your system. Also, I placed a 15psi (after losses) pump to drive the pc/rc cooling to maintain a high flow velocity to insure accuracy.

    Liter Digiflow 1/4NPT Digital Flow Meter count up total Water Liter LPM 56"cable @ eBay

  • Pretty much what I was doing too. I ended up with a few different bits of code that worked slightly differently using interrupts and timers and counters with running averages etc.
    I stopped because the sensor itself wasn't suitable for my needs. I need a much smaller one to do a few 100 ml/min.

    Anyway, welcome.
    I'd be keen to hear more about your past project too. What was the feedstock and were you just removing water did you getting all sorts of other products off the top?

  • Nice looking set-up! I don't have the patience to do that much set-up before running. But then I'm also not retired....

  • Past project was in the very early 1980's when the Carter administration was providing tax incentives for alternative fuel production. The substrate was a sorgam grain called milo. I used approximately 5,000 acres of grain for a year's alcohol production. It was more available in the Pecos Valley than corn and had almost exactly the same yield per bushel (56 lbs). It was a good day when I got 2.5 gallons of alcohol per bushel. As far as taste/flavor can't say because it was only used for a 1:10 mixture with gasoline. The plant was a continuous distillation supplied by a batch cooking process. ie 80,000 gallon tank to feed the 30" distillation columns and four 40,000 gallon tanks in various stages of rapid fermentation. The grain was separated by a stripper column and then processed, dried, and sold to the local dairies as a high protein feed (35%). The stripped vapor went to a 30 plate rectifier column leaving at close to 192 abv. Next, that vapor went to a two phase molecular sieve which broke the azeotrope. Minimum proof for sales contract was 198 ABV, anything less caused gasoline mixture moisture fallout problems.

    That was my only past project relating to alcohol production. Lots of big pumps, heat exchangers, tanks, and steam generation. Now, I relate to the in garage small batch process like refining a barrel of oil... separating the various components by boiling point differential ..ie fores, heads, hearts, and tails. This is a whole different ball game and has been very enjoyable. So far, big approvals for the final product. Thanks for the comments.

  • so, who else wants a StillDragon Molecular Sieve for 198 nuetral?

  • I'd worry about the flavor

  • I wasn't expecting it to do magic with flavor, I would do that... but just to make 198 would be cool... not as cool as 200, but cool...

    Oh, I have that same flowmeter but in 1/2" NPT, and have it doing GPM.. so yes, at a trickle, it is useless, but it is an 8" column... I usually am between .8-1.0 gpm for normal operation to 4GPM wide open for full reflux to compress heads. side note - I wish you could buy the panel mount for the housing separately...

  • Welcome mate. That is a beautifully presented unit. Looks like it could be used for a teaching facility.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited September 2015

    Thanks for the welcome!

    For an continuation of the distillation project I was thinking of making a mini sieve, something similar to your activated carbon filter system except using an Al O2 desiccant for the separation catalyst. That was what I used previously only 48" in diameter and 7 ft tall @ 2x .. one active and the other being dried. The picture is taken from the other side of my garage. The alcohol would go to fuel a mixture for the "car" on the left. Would like to hit 199+ again !

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  • 200 proof is like the speed of light. You can never quite get there.

    But if you ever did you would cause a quantum singularity, and your neighbors would probably get very angry at you...

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • My personal best was 199.3 abv absolute temperature corrected and measured via a super hydrometer government certified for sales. My personal best in the 800 hp atomic orange Vette was 198 mph (330kph). ...either way. I still have a ways to go for that elusive 200. The black barrier curtain left of the radiator is my quantum (think small) neighbor shield. Cheers Mate!

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