Monday, February 23, 2009

Distillation Water Treatment

Distillation is one of the oldest methods of water
treatment and is still in use today though not commonly as
a home treatment method. It can effectively remove many
contaminants from drinking water, including bacteria,
inorganic and many organic compounds.

Note that home water treatment is considered only a
temporary solution. The best solutions to a contaminated
drinking water problem are to either end the practices
causing the contamination or change water sources.
Distillation is a process that relies on evaporation to
purify water. Contaminated water is heated to form steam.
Inorganic compounds and large non-volatile organic
molecules do not evaporate with the water and are left
behind. The steam then cools and condenses to form
purified water.

Distillation is most effective in removing inorganic
compounds such as metals (iron and lead) and nitrate;
hardness (calcium and magnesium); and particulates from a
contaminated water supply. The boiling process also kills
microorganisms such as bacteria and some viruses. The
effectiveness of distillation in removing organic
compounds varies, depending on such chemical
characteristics of the organic compound as solubility and
boiling point. Organic compounds that boil at temperatures
greater than the boiling point of water (some pesticides)
can be effectively removed from the water. Organic
compounds that boil at temperatures lower than the boiling
point of water (ex., benzene and toluene) will be
vaporized along with the water. If these harmful compounds
are not removed prior to condensation, they will
recontaminate the purified product.

Distillation Units

Distillation units or stills generally consist of a
boiling chamber, where the water enters, is heated and
vaporized; condensing coils or chamber, where the water
is cooled and converted back to liquid water; and a
storage tank for purified water. (Vis. 1)

Distillation units are usually installed as point-
of-use (POU) systems. They are generally placed at the
kitchen faucet and used to purify water intended for
(drinking and cooking purposes only. Stills vary in size,
depending on the amount of purified water they produce.
The production rate varies from 3 to 11 gallons per day.
Home stills can be located on the counter or floor, or
attached to the wall.

Models can be fully or partially automated, or
manual. Some stills have columns or volatile gas vents to
eliminate organic chemicals with boiling points lower
than water, thus ensuring uncontaminated water.

Operation, Maintenance and Cost

As with all home water treatment systems, stills
require some level of regular maintenance to keep the
unit operating properly. Unevaporated pollutants remaining
in the boiling chamber need to be regularly flushed to the
septic or sewer system. Even with regular removal of the
residual water that contains unevaporated pollutants, a
calcium and magnesium, scale will collect at the bottom of
the boiling chamber. This scale eventually needs to be
removed, usually by hand scrubbing or by an application of
acid.

Heating water to form steam requires energy. This
means that operating costs for distillation units are
generally higher than those of other forms of home water
treatment. The distillation process also removes oxygen
and some trace metals from water. Some people claim this
leaves the water tasting flat.

This information comes from Michigan State University
Extension bulletin WQ 22, Distillation for Home Water
Treatment

Saturday, February 21, 2009

more photos of ethanol distillation




External Circulation Concentrator(Alcohol Can Be Recycted) (WZ-Series)


Product Description

The equipment is widely used in liquid material concentration concentrating of medicine, chemical industry and foodstuff as well as recovery of organic solvent Especially suitable for thermal sentitive materials such as alcohol extracting liquid, fermentation liquid, fruit juice and milk under vacuum condition making low temperature continuous concentration.It has much better effectiveness in various and small quantity materials.

Features:
1.Alcohol recycling:Strong recycling capacity, adopt vacuum concentrating flow, the production rate has improved 5-10 times than the old types, reduced 30%of energy cost.It has the character that small investment but big profit.
2.Concentrating materials:The equipment adopts the style that combining externall heating cycling and vacuum vaporizing.Vaporizing speed is very fast, concentrating gravity can reach to 1.3.The liquid materials are concentrated under he completely sealing condition and there is no foaming.The liquid concentrated by this equipment has the features that no pollution and strong flavor.And it is easy to clean (cleaning can be done as soon as opening the upper and lower covers ).The machine is easy to operate, covers small areas, the heater and vaporizer adopt the stainless steel heat keeping structure, the shell is made of stainless steel and the surface is mirror or matted process.

Alcohol Distill Machinery(WZJN-SERIES)


Product Description

The equipment is applicable to the alcohol recycle and cream recycle of the industries such as pharmacy plants, starch, chemical industry, foodstuff and dairy products, and it can be used in liquid conc entration of small quantity and various materials.

Features: 1This machine is a newly developed product of our company, which combines medicinal liquid condensation and alcohol rectification. Through scientific and technical process, the condensation of medicinal liquid and the retrieval of highly condensed alcohol can be completed at the same time. The investment of this machine is only half of the cost of conventional technology, energy consumption 60%, which proves that it is an energy saving equipment, with small investment and high retrieving capacity. It is widely used in pharmaceutical, brewery, refinement chemistry, and dairy industry.
2. This machine adopts the mode of external circulation and negative pressure evaporation, thus it is characterized by speed evaporation and high condensation ratio, up to 1: 4. It is easy to operate and beautiful in outward appearance, with the internal parts that contact with medicinal liquid polished
3. This machine is easy to operate and cleaning, with several functions combined together. It is the equipment of first choice for retrieving organic and in accord with the GMP standard.

Model: WZJN-SERIES

more information: http://www.made-in-china.com

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Distillation Design by Henry Z. Kister

* Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional
* Number Of Pages: 710
* Publication Date: 1992-02-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0070349096
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780070349094
* Binding: Hardcover




Product Description:

This text provides thorough coverage of design principles for distillation processes. It contains an up-to-date presentation of process and equipment design procedures, highlights limitations of some design methods, and offers guidance on how to overcome them.

Investigating the Need of a Pre-Concentrator Column for the Isopropyl Alcohol Dehydration Process


Saiful Arifin and I-Lung Chien. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Keelung Road, Sec. 4, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

The design and control of a complete heterogeneous azeotropic distillation column system using cyclohexane (CyH) as entrainer has been presented by Chien, et al. (2004). In that study, the feed composition to the heterogeneous azeotropic column is assumed to be near to the isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water azeotropic composition (IPA at 69 mol% in that paper). In that study, two-column system containing a heterogeneous azeotropic column and a recovery column was recommended. However, in a typical waste IPA stream in semi-conductor industry where IPA is used as a cleaning agent, the water content is much higher than 31 mol%. Taking a typical waste IPA stream with equal molar of IPA and water as an example, the two-column system as proposed in Chien, et al. (2004) will result in very high recycle flow from the second recovery column to the first heterogeneous azeotropic column. This can easily be seen from the conceptual material balance lines in Figure 7 of Chien, et al. (2004). The main reason is because the line drawn from the points of fresh feed and the organic reflux is too close to the point of ternary azeotropic composition of IPA/H2O/CyH. Thus, the top vapor flow rate will be much larger than the flow rate of the bottom IPA product stream.

An obvious design to solve the above problem is to include a pre-concentrator column in the upstream of the heterogeneous azeotropic column to concentrate the fresh feed composition to 69 mol% IPA. In this way, the previous conclusions in Chien, et al. (2004) can be applied. However, the overall process will include three columns, thus the Total Annual Cost (TAC) may not be competitive to other designs. An alternative process design is to still using two columns with a column (C-2 in Figure 1 below) acting as both the pre-concentrator column and the recovery column. This design flowsheet can be seen in Figure 1 and was studied by Ryan and Doherty (1989) for the ethanol/water/benzene system. In their study, they concluded that this two-column system has lower capital costs but higher operating costs than the three-column system so that the total annualized cost is about the same for both systems. However, they also cautioned that no generalizations should be made from this one example to other systems.

In this study, the IPA dehydration system for fresh feed with equal molar of IPA and water is investigated. The TAC is used as the objective function to be minimized for the above two alternative process design flowsheets. A comparison of the TACs will be made for the optimized two systems. Because feed composition of the waste IPA stream can vary widely, the overall control strategy for these two alternative design are critically important in rejecting this feed composition disturbance. The operability of these two process systems under proper overall control strategy will also be compared. Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics are used in the above design and control studies.

Literature Cited

Chien, I. L.; Zeng, K. L.; Chao, H. Y. Design and Control of a Complete Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation Column System. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2004, 43, 9, 2160-2174.

Ryan, P. J.; Doherty, M. F. Design/Optimization of Ternary Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation Sequences. AIChE J. 1989, 35, 1592-1601.

Keywords: Isopropyl Alcohol Dehydration, Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation, Design and Control.
source http://www.aiche.confe.com

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Distillation for alcohol




A new distillation equipment for alcohol which consists mainly of a brief concentrating column A, a concentrating column B, a compressor C to compress alcohol vapor generated in column B and water evaporator D heated by the compressed alcohol vapor is developed and this especially fits for a distillation source of a glue like solution obtained by alcohol fermentation because steam generated in the water evaporator D is directly blown into the solution in the concentrating column A. 

How To Distill Ethanol or Grain Alcohol

Ethanol is also called ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. It's made from a fermented mixture of corn, yeast, sugar, and water. The resulting alcohol is 100 to 200 proof (200 proof is pure alcohol).

In addition to use in the lab, ethanol is a popular fuel alternative and gasoline additive. Because it is flammable, ethanol can be prohibitively expensive to ship, so it may make sense to distill your own. Anyone can have a still, but be advised you may need to get a permit in order to make ethanol.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 3 - 10 days, sometimes longer
Here's How:

1. If you are starting with whole corn, you first need to convert the cornstarch into sugar by 'sprouting' the corn. Place the corn in a container, cover it with warm water, and drape a cloth over the container to prevent contamination and conserve heat. Ideally, the container will have a slowly draining hole at the bottom. Add warm water from time to time as the liquid level falls. Maintain the setup ~3 days or until the corn has sprouts about 2 inches long.
2. Allow the sprouted corn to dry. Then grind it into meal. Alternatively, start with cornmeal. Other grains can be prepared in much the same way (e.g. rye mash).
3. Mash or mush is made by adding boiling water to the corn meal. The mash is kept warm to start the fermentation process. Yeast is added, if available (half pound yeast per 50 gallons of mash, for example), and sugar (variable recipe). With yeast, fermentation takes about 3 days. Without yeast, fermentation could require more than 10 days. The mash is ready to 'run' once it stops bubbling. The mash has been converted into carbonic acid and alcohol. It is called 'wash' or 'beer' or 'sour mash'.
4. The wash is placed into a cooker, which has a lid that is pasted shut, so that it has a seal which can be blown off should internal pressure become too great. At the top of the cooker, there is a copper pipe, or 'arm' that projects to one side and tapers down from a 4-5 inch diameter to the same diameter as the 'worm' (1 to 1-1/4 inch). The 'worm' could be made by taking a 20 ft length of copper tubing, filling it with sand and stopping the ends, and then coiling it around a fence post.
5. The sand prevents the tubing from kinking while being coiled. Once the worm is formed, the sand is flushed out of the tube. The worm is placed in a barrel and sealed to the end of the arm. The barrel is kept full of cold, running water, to condense the alcohol. Water runs in the top of the barrel and out an opening at the bottom. A fire is maintained under the cooker to vaporize the alcohol in the wash.
6. The ethanol vaporizes at 173°F, which is the target temperature for the mixture. The spirit will rise to the top of the cooker, enter the arm, and will be cooled to the condensation point in the worm. The resulting liquid is collected at the end of the worm, traditionally into glass jars. This fluid will be translucent, and about the color of dark beer.
7. The very first liquid contains volatile oil contaminants in addition to alcohol. After that, liquid is collected. The containers of liquid collected from over the wash are called 'singlings'. Liquid collected toward the end of this run is called 'low wine'. Low wine can be collected and returned to the still to be cooked again. The initial collections are higher proof than those collected as the distillation progresses.
8. The singlings tend to have impurities and require double-distillation, so once the low wine has been run to the point where a tablespoon or so thrown on a flame won't burn (too low proof), the heat is removed from the still and the cooker is cleaned out. The liquid remaining in the still, the 'backings' or 'slop', can be recovered and poured over new grain (and sugar, water, and possibly malt) in a mash barrel for future distillations. Discard mash after no more than eight uses.
9. The singlings are poured into the cooker and the still is returned to operation. The initial collections can approach pure alcohol (200 proof), with the end collections, using the flash test on the flame, at about 10 proof.
10. The desired proof depends on the application. The highest proof usually obtained from a still is 190 proof. For using alcohol as a fuel alternative, for example, addition purification with a sieve may be required to obtain 200 proof ethanol.

Tips:

1. If you live in the United States, a permit may be required in order to legally distill ethanol.
2. Stills traditionally were operated close to a water source, like a stream or river, because the cool water was used to condense the alcohol in the tubing (called the 'worm')
3. Stills needed to have removable tops, so that they wouldn't explode when pressure built up from heating the mash.

What You Need:

* 25 lb corn meal or 25 lb shelled whole corn
* 100 lb sugar (sucrose)
* 100 gallons water
* 6 oz yeast
article source http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/ht/ethanol.htm

PROCESS FOR THE EVAPORATION OF VOLATILE ALCOHOLS AND SULPHUR IN THE COURSE OF BLACK LIQUOR EVAPORATION


A process is provided for reducing the emission of volatile alcohols and sulphur compounds during the evaporation of black liquor in several effects in the sulphate cellulose process. The liquor in those effects which are working with the most diluted liquor is evaporated in two or more steps on the same pressure level. The liquor is carried through the steps in series, the vapours obtained from these steps are condensed and at least a part of the condensates obtained are reintroduced into the process or purified by means of distillation.

ethanol distillation


Distillation means taking the fermented ethanol and water mixture and adding heat to separate them -- typically in a still. Since ethanol evaporates faster than water, the ethanol rises through a tube, collects and condenses into another container. The water is left behind.

There are a lot of different kinds of stills, including pot stills, vacuum stills, reflux stills and solar stills, which differ in setup and the way you heat your product. The two most widely used in-home ethanol production units are solar stills and reflux stills. Designs for all of these can be found online, and there are as many different variations for all of them as human innovation will allow. If you have any doubts about the safety or credibility of a particular still, do not attempt to use that design.
Copper stills.
Marcus Brooke/Getty Images
Distillation is really the same process, whether you're working with large or small quantities.

One of the simplest and most Earth-friendly distilleries is a solar still. As its name implies, a solar still uses the sun's energy to heat and separate the product. This is the most Earth-friendly design because it doesn't use any other type of fuel, such as wood for a flame or coal for electricity, to make your fuel. The downside to this still design is that it can be inconsistent. It depends entirely on how much sun you get around your house -- and it also makes fairly weak ethanol.

Reflux stills are the most common and efficient stills used to make ethanol at home. Reflux stills usually use electricity or natural gas for heating. In the past, reflux stills used several increasingly smaller boiling pots to separate ethanol from water into increasingly concentrated forms. Now, reflux stills use one boiling pot and a complex reflux column which is broken down into smaller spaces to imitate other boiling pots. It takes up less space and provides for a more pure product.

Prior to distilling ethanol, you'll need to have a permit. Keep reading to find out how to get one.


­ 

Ethanol distillation process

A process arrangement for distilling fuel grade ethanol includes a fermentation portion, a distillation portion, a condensation and dehydration portion, a separation and drying portion and an evaporation portion. The fermentation portion produces beer. The distillation portion, the condensation and dehydration portion and the separation and drying portion receives beer from the fermentation portion and produces hot ethanol vapor and thin stillage. In the evaporation portion, a set of first effect evaporators which are heated either by plant steam or hot ethanol vapor, concentrate thin stillage into mid stillage while producing first effect steam. The first effect steam from the first effect evaporators provides heat to a set of second effect evaporators which concentrate the mid stillage into a syrup for further drying. The second effect evaporators produce second effect steam which is used to heat the distillation portion of the process arrangement. The multiple evaporators of the first and second effects of the evaporation portion can be selectively taken off-line for maintenance while the evaporation portion and the remainder of the process arrangement continue to operate at full capacity. 

About Ethanol Distillation

Through the years, people have been used to oil price hikes, such that even when prices rise to a seemingly unreachable scale, people are not surprised anymore. But then, with the continuous improvements made through science and technology, many people still have an inkling of hope left that much cheaper alternatives to our fast diminishing fuel would be found.

No wonder, people are embracing the idea of producing bio fuels (any fuel derived from living organisms harvested within ten years before it was manufactured) – one of which is ethanol distillation.

To have a better understanding of what ethanol distillation is, let’s get into the basics of ethanol.

Ethanol fast Facts

• Systematic Name: Ethanol

• Other Names: Ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, hydroxyethane, EtOH

• Molecular Formula: E2H6O

• Physically, ethanol may be described as a colorless, flammable, slightly toxic chemical compound that has a distinctive perfume-like smell.

• It is produced from sugar cane and used as automotive fuel in Brazil. Ethanol made out of corn, on the other hand, is being used widely as a gasoline additive and direct fuel in the United States. Straw, meanwhile, is being used to manufacture ethanol as well.

• Ethanol is currently the leading bio fuel provider in Europe.

A Little Bit of History

Mankind has been using ethanol since the prehistoric years as an intoxicating component in alcoholic drinks. Dried residues found in the pottery of Neolithic people from China serve as proof for this assertion. Persian alchemists who developed the art of distillation, however, first achieved its isolation as a relatively pure compound

In 1796, Johan Tobias Lowitz, produced the first absolute ethanol by filtering distilled ethanol through charcoal.

Many scientists and experiments after, ethanol was used as fuel for lamps in the pre-Civil War of United States, as well as power for Model T automobiles. Ethanol could not compete with the availability and low cost of petroleum, however, that it disappeared from the public eye.

Ethanol Distillation

Most of us already have an idea on how distillation happens. Let’s have the production of distilled water as an example. When water is subjected to heat, it is expected that steam would conduct away from a tube. A tube looped and oriented downward and allowed to cool would yield condensed vapor and eventually, water.

Simon Oldmann is an avid writer and a green activist, he has been writing about Ethanol use since the growing popularity of alternative fuels has erupted in the last few years. Anyone who is interested in the future of fuel, fuel prices and cleaner and alternative fuel resource should know something about Ethanol Distillation, visit http://ethanol.zupatips.com

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Distilling Ethanol - Grain Alcohol (links)

  * The level of interest in using alcohol as a motor fuel has followed cycles of fuel shortages and/or low feed-grain prices.
  * Alcohols burn more completely, thus increasing combustion efficiency.
  * There are many disadvantages to using alcohols, particularly methyl and ethyl alcohol.
  * Advantages of mixing alcohol with gasoline are that alcohol tends to increase the octane rating and reduce carbon monoxide emissions.
  * Alcohols may corrode certain materials used in engines.

  http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/PUBS/FARMMGT/05010.html

  How to modify an injection system: It's Toyota-specific, but applies
  to most electronic fuel injection systems.
  http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/9975/dataBySubject/EFImods.html

  How To Modify Your Car To Run On Alcohol Fuel: "Guidelines for
  converting gasoline engines (With Specific Instructions for
  Air-Cooled Volkswagens)" by Roger Lippman, April 1982 -- Five-chapter
  online book:
  http://alky.home.igc.org/

  How To Adapt Your Automobile Engine For Ethyl Alcohol Use -- Mother
  Earth Alcohol Fuel Manual. Biofuels Library
  http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me2.html

  More info in Mother Earth Alcohol Fuel and The Manual for the Home
  and Farm Production of Alcohol Fuel in the Biofuels Library
  http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html

  Distilling Ethanol - The conversion of cellulose, such as sawdust, cornstalks, newspaper and other substances

  Charts on Grain Usage and Exports - University of Maryland http://www.arec.umd.edu/areces/grain/graincharts.htm

  FUEL ETHANOL AND FOOD SUPPLY http://www.greenfuels.org/ethafood.html

What Is Distillation?

Distillation is a widely used method for separating mixtures based on differences in the conditions required to change the phase of components of the mixture. To separate a mixture of liquids, the liquid can be heated to force components, which have different boiling points, into the gas phase. The gas is then condensed back into liquid form and collected. Repeating the process on the collected liquid to improve the purity of the product is called double distillation. Although the term is most commonly applied to liquids, the reverse process can be used to separate gases by liquefying components using changes in temperature and/or pressure.

Distillation is used for many commercial processes, such as production of gasoline, distilled water, xylene, alcohol, paraffin, kerosene, and many other liquids. Types of distillation include simple distillation (described here), fractional distillation (different volatile 'fractions' are collected as they are produced), and destructive distillation (usually, a material is heated so that it decomposes into compounds for collection). 

Ethanol distillation process

A process arrangement for distilling fuel grade ethanol includes a fermentation portion, a distillation portion, a condensation and dehydration portion, a separation and drying portion and an evaporation portion. The fermentation portion produces beer. The distillation portion, the condensation and dehydration portion and the separation and drying portion receives beer from the fermentation portion and produces hot ethanol vapor and thin stillage. In the evaporation portion, a set of first effect evaporators which are heated either by plant steam or hot ethanol vapor, concentrate thin stillage into mid stillage while producing first effect steam. The first effect steam from the first effect evaporators provides heat to a set of second effect evaporators which concentrate the mid stillage into a syrup for further drying. The second effect evaporators produce second effect steam which is used to heat the distillation portion of the process arrangement. The multiple evaporators of the first and second effects of the evaporation portion can be selectively taken off-line for maintenance while the evaporation portion and the remainder of the process arrangement continue to operate at full capacity.