Components For Small Eucalyptus Oil Distillery

edited January 2021 in General

I'm looking at ways to update our small demonstration model home-made prototype 50 litre eucalyptus oil still.

Looking for commercially produced components that I can assemble to replace our current still.

Any constructive suggestions welcome.

Comments

  • edited January 2021

    If you do a search here i did a mock up of a 50l based twin milk can rig somewhere. I'll see if i can find it. should be scalable.

    Essential Oil Stock Rig

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

  • edited January 2021

    Thanks for the response.

    This diagram posted by @Sunshine shows pretty well what I use now:

    image

    The heat source is a gas (LPG) burner, and the whole rig is designed to be fairly robust and portable.

    Can anyone match the components in the diagram with the names of commonly available components - I see "milk cans", "pots" etc? - I'm unsure of the detail of these, but learning all the time.

    Thanks again

  • No worries, if you look at the post i linked to, it shows the same thing as your drawing without the seperator.

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

  • edited January 2021

    Thanks @punkin.

    Sorry, I should have looked further. I can now see the setup that you mention.

    We demonstrate our current still to the public out in the open in a bush location. No electricity so we use a LPG gas bottle and burner, water supply bucketed from adjacent creek, the whole unit is able to be dissembled and taken back to the shed in a ute.

    So, some further questions if you could help please?

    1. How to apply gas heating to the 1st tank
    2. Opening the 2nd tank to load/unload leaves - I can see quick-connect clamps at the top but the opening seems small.
    3. how do you get the false bottom into the 2nd tank - can it open up to its full diameter?
    4. does the condenser on top of the 2nd tank have a coil in it? Is it efficient enough to fill with water and replenish as it heats up?

    thanks again

  • edited January 2021

    Sort of, the opening is 8". But in any case, you already have a 50l one.

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

  • Thanks again. My current rig is hand-made with a modified oxyacetylene cylinder for the steamer and an old oil drum and copper tube coil for the condenser. I'd like to replace all with stainless steel fired by a lpg gas burner

  • Hello again

    Thanks for the replies so far.

    I'd like to replace all of my current rig - so, just reiterating as per above.

    If I use the components in StillDragon's "catalogue"

    1. How to apply gas heating to the 1st tank
    2. Opening the 2nd tank to load/unload leaves - I can see quick-connect clamps at the top but the opening seems small - is there a way to achieve a larger opening?
    3. how do you get the false bottom into the 2nd tank - can it open up to its full diameter?
    4. does the condenser on top of the 2nd tank have a coil in it? Is it efficient enough to fill with water and replenish as it heats up?

    I'm hoping to build another 4 or 5 of these to give to other groups, using proprietary products, once I have a successful replacement for our prototype.

  • Hi again

    I'm in Canberra - does anyone know of someone nearby who might be using a similar set-up to what I've described. Please send pm.

  • Why couldn’t you weld an 8” triclamp ferrule onto (maybe both ends of) a beer keg then use reducers to get back to 2” or 1.5” pipes. Then you would just need to open the 8” clamp to recharge the keg with fresh herb.

    Almost no reason you couldn’t standardize the boiler to a keg as well. The keg will handle direct flame no problem and the handle/foot flange does nice work as a flame shield to keep it heating efficiently.

    I’d base it all on kegs and weld flanges to get to standard triclamp connections and pipe. A 1.5” pipe would be even easier to source locally if needed in emergency.

    If you can get the welding or even silver soldering if the flanges into the keg you are really home free.

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