Ethanol recovery help needed

that’s a great start.

insulating the still body will dump less heat into the room, which can make a difference in your cooling loads. it will also reduce reflux later in your recovery, which should shorten runtimes and reduce degradation.

I’ve used 1" urethane based insulation on the hot and cold side of things, and it helps a lot. you can get it in adhesive and non-adhesive versions, and there is even a hard shelled (one side) version if you want to get really fancy. you can also fake that with foil tape if you want “shiny”

its what you’ll find inside well made heaters and chillers too.

fiberglass (water heater style) is another option I’ve seen used, but I hate working with that stuff.

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nah, that stuff melts in boiling water. k-flex is the shiznit

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But for insulation on a chiller line?

K flex on the boiling pot is a great idea. That’s great it comes in sheets.

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he is trying to get that big old tank down to -40C for extraction. by the frost lines, it looks like it is vacuum jacketed over most of it’s surface. insulating the top of that will help a lot. and it would help to insulate the whole thing. they don’t have enough cold. they should not waste ANY.

I’ve had the Home Despot stuff melt on my 96C water lines (probably only when they leaked). I also prefer the better quality for super low temps.

I’ve been known to recommend pool noodles, cause they’re usually thicker, and you can color code your lines. or just 'cause :wink:

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Just to clarify, I have no problem getting the big tank down to -40c, it just takes somewhere between 12 and 24 hours. The problem im having is being able to actually cool and collect all the ethanol im cooking off in my still within a single workday (pref 8 hours). My vacuum pump was spewing hot ethanol yesterday. Now, slowing down my evaporation rate is one option, but im not much of a “slow down” kinda guy, I actually want to evaporate faster. So for now, or at least until I can get more chilling power I’ve switched the setup exactly to what was suggested today.

MTA is now on the condenser. DSLB is now on the little cooling tank and the big jacketed tank. Condenser at a 45 degree angle and I cut down any excess space within the system. Tomorrow I will begin insulating everything really well. The last thing Im considering adding is another 4x24in tri clamp condenser and another chiller.

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Update on the insulation. Check it out.

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This is the way

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