For what it’s worth, I’ve been thinking along somewhat similar lines recently. Instead of hydrocarbons under pressure, I’m thinking vacuum distillation(recovery) of ethanol.
As far I can tell, only one option exists for ethanol recovery priced for the “occasional home users”, which is the E.T. turbo. and (to a less degree the et*h pro). There was also an older aluminum machine that looked like a fondue fountain. I think it had ‘iso’ in the name but can’t remember.
The e.t. turbo is neat for $600, but still relies on a bowl of ice being on top to condense ethanol vapors rising from a little heated crucible, which then drip down the sides to the bottom to be poured off. It works, but seems kinda hacky to me for $600.
I don’t have enough practical experience with thermo-electric cooling or vacuum distillation to say for sure, but it seems like combining a cheap ass diaphragm pump, with Peltier module(s), could create the necessary temp diff and atmosphere to recover ethanol from small volumes of crude. It should work, but I have not built a proof of concept yet.
I understand distillation conceptually, but am not yet that familiar. Bout to change that as soon as I get a break here at work and have time to read through it. Thank you for the highly relevant link, I appreciate it
Logically, I’m with ya, that would be the way to go if one wanted to go all in and have a highly configurable, efficient setup. I’d go this route too. The results would no doubt be superior, but the costs and complexity would deter the casual home grower that I’m imagining. Just mostly was curious how feasible it might be to use a peltier in such a way, at they’re pretty inexpensive.