Hi everyone,
while running a rectifying/polishing run yesterday I noticed uneven pressure in my stream, first think it was a condensing issue, went through the process but found it to be operating properly. When checking my kettle I noticed an irregular boil (no longer rolling boil but instead 3 almost cluster/volcano boiling points). Immediately haulted the distillation as I was certain my heat transfer wasn't working properly.
Currently working off a 200L pot with 9 plate column directly above.. I believe a "bane marie" system? Heated with a glycol filled jacket (approx 75L) and 3 heat elements similar in style to those in hot water tanks.
I purged the glycol which was thick and brown like molasses and absolutely stunk of paint, acetone, sweet, acidic... so it had obviously burnt out after only 6 months of operation... it seems to have over heated/superheated? I have never experienced anything like this before.
Any recommendations on glycol equivalents that would be more durable.. maybe a mineral oil, etc..? or process adjustments to avoid this in the future?
thank you
We used deep fry oil in our jacket with electric heating elements in our 150 gallon still. Just swapped it out after using the same oil for 5 years. We run it to 325F.
We ran regular old canola oil for years only problem was it always smelled like we were making French fries. Didn’t effect anything but damn I was hungry a lot
Basically the cheapest deep fry oil that has a good smoke point for us it's a soy/peanut blend. Then when you're done with it the biodiesel companies will take it from you.
I had purchased a used 110 gal Baine Marie that the previous owner had burnt the oil in. Due to this thick sludge build up caked on the inner jacket it had terrible heat transfer. I brought it back and power flushed it for a week alternating with Dawn dish soap, PBW and citric acid. After about 1 week it looked brand new on the inside. I then converted it from a oil Baine Marie to a stand alone steam boiler. The steam is much more responsive, cleaner and cheaper.
I modified the sight glass so I could read all the way to the bottom of the jacket. I fill my water to just 1 inch above the 4- 6000 watt elements. I have also added a auto-vent, low water cutoff, auto-feed, low pressure relief valves, vacuum relief valves and a high pressure cut-off switch. Been running it for a couple of years and it runs like a champ
Post time 2022-10-6 16:25:04
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