I thought most stripping units where/are just pot stills, no plates or packing.
Just a decent sized condenser to match power input so you can push the alcohol out as quick as possible.
What size unit are you looking at?
I can only go by my experience, I use a 50lt converted keg and 4" dash unit normally, when stripping I have 4" about 500mm roughly in height, then down to 2" into a 180 bend, into a 2" long shotgun condenser.
The extra height with a sight glass section helps with any foam or boil up problems, easy to spot and give a little lee way if needed.
This can handle 7200w stripping taking about 30mins to heat up and 1 hr to strip.
I'd reckon I could push harder if I had a third element installed, but I'd perhaps need a bigger condenser to knock it down, or at least an additional 2" big-baby inline.
I can do 3 runs back to back in one morning without an issue.
Depends what you are stripping, if its grain in then yes the disk and donut approach, if not then your options are endless. The stripping column of our continuous fractionating system currently uses stainless perf plates, but thats not to say that bubble caps or raschig rings won't work just as well. One thing I never tried was marbles, which could work pretty well with a grain in approach.
The easiest setup would be to have fermentation vessels that can handle vacuum and just hook up a vacuum pump and let it rip until it stops bubbling. If you don't have fermentation vessels that can handle vacuum you need to build an inline continuous degassing chamber.
@grim even with antifoam, and I use quite a bit in my ferments, you will still need to degass when using a continuous still, there is a significant amount of dissolved/suspended co2 that will cause more foam than you can imagine, degassing is necessary.
@marcus find my continuous still thread and you will find the inline degassing chamber. I would use the 8" stainless plates that still dragon sells
Sorry lads, the family was sick for the last week. I'll see if I can find the crazy Russian videos for you. Did I mention they are fans of PTFE plates?
Use Google Chrome, it will translate every page for you. I spent a full day/night going through several hundred of those Russian pages. They are not afraid of trying something new and unlike me they happily build with no idea how things are going to work. There's lots of great development work in that thread and a couple of the associated threads.
After more development we found that a fuzzy logic controller running a solid state relay was the go, it held the "RIMS tube" within 2-3 deg C of the required 95C. A normal controller would have wild swings of 30C or more.
Comments
I thought most stripping units where/are just pot stills, no plates or packing.
Just a decent sized condenser to match power input so you can push the alcohol out as quick as possible.
What size unit are you looking at?
I can only go by my experience, I use a 50lt converted keg and 4" dash unit normally, when stripping I have 4" about 500mm roughly in height, then down to 2" into a 180 bend, into a 2" long shotgun condenser. The extra height with a sight glass section helps with any foam or boil up problems, easy to spot and give a little lee way if needed. This can handle 7200w stripping taking about 30mins to heat up and 1 hr to strip. I'd reckon I could push harder if I had a third element installed, but I'd perhaps need a bigger condenser to knock it down, or at least an additional 2" big-baby inline.
I can do 3 runs back to back in one morning without an issue.
Fadge
a continyous stripper i ment to say
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
I think Telluride's disk and donut approach is probably the most flexible and cost effective if you can fab.
would this work with a 10" column and how does it work
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
Depends what you are stripping, if its grain in then yes the disk and donut approach, if not then your options are endless. The stripping column of our continuous fractionating system currently uses stainless perf plates, but thats not to say that bubble caps or raschig rings won't work just as well. One thing I never tried was marbles, which could work pretty well with a grain in approach.
@marcus what is your heat source?
the wash will be reasonably clean molasses and grain wash but our grain stays in the mash tun
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
the heat sorce will be steam coils in the smal pot at the base of the column
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
Just go with perf or bubble plates, the ferments need to be fully degassed otherwise you will surely run into foaming problems.
so what is the best way to degass the wash
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
The easiest setup would be to have fermentation vessels that can handle vacuum and just hook up a vacuum pump and let it rip until it stops bubbling. If you don't have fermentation vessels that can handle vacuum you need to build an inline continuous degassing chamber.
how does the inline degassing chamber work any pictures would be great
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
Why not just use antifoam? I can understand the use in a vacuum distillation situation, but atmospheric? What am I missing?
going back to the column would discs of 6mm perforated plate work do they need downcomers fitted or will the plates work
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
6mm way too big of holes to load up and work, 1.5mm-1.8mm is the normal range...
These 8" plates work good and are inexpensive (may need to special order, do not see on EU page):
if you are looking at making your own plates, I would read @harley's thread...
@grim even with antifoam, and I use quite a bit in my ferments, you will still need to degass when using a continuous still, there is a significant amount of dissolved/suspended co2 that will cause more foam than you can imagine, degassing is necessary. @marcus find my continuous still thread and you will find the inline degassing chamber. I would use the 8" stainless plates that still dragon sells
I've actually seen 6mm holes work perfectly fine for stripping column plates. It all comes down to what your endgame is.
video or it didn't happen!
Too easy. Stand-by please...just looking for the video. What I'll post is a 2" continuous column running 12 x 7mm holes on each plate producing vodka.
C'mon, one pass, producing product? Or are we talking about high-test stripping.
did you have the video
Coles Family Brewers - Est. 1999 - The Best Pub In Wales
Sorry lads, the family was sick for the last week. I'll see if I can find the crazy Russian videos for you. Did I mention they are fans of PTFE plates?
Somewhere in here for those keen to look
Hard to make out the text in there
Use Google Chrome, it will translate every page for you. I spent a full day/night going through several hundred of those Russian pages. They are not afraid of trying something new and unlike me they happily build with no idea how things are going to work. There's lots of great development work in that thread and a couple of the associated threads.
Check out Tagged with "continuous stripper"
After more development we found that a fuzzy logic controller running a solid state relay was the go, it held the "RIMS tube" within 2-3 deg C of the required 95C. A normal controller would have wild swings of 30C or more.
220V Digital PID Temperature Controller Control Thermometer + K Sensor + 60A SSR @ eBay
Take a look through the thread, you may get some good ideas from the comments.
Raising this from the dead - are those 8" perf plates still available?
Stainless Steel Perf Plate @ StillDragon North America