Jobson&Rusakova

This has probably been covered elsewhere or is so obvious it doesn't need too much attention, but what are the functional differences between steam heated pots and pots heated with a water bath? What are the pros and cons of the two methods of heating a still or cooking grain. Thank you. Robert

We have not yet designed or built a firebox or still that would go with it, but I am trying to imagine the basic mechanical structure of the pot or boiler set in a firebox. The pot or boiler would have to be cleaned and while I can imagine how to access the top of the pot, I have not figured out you would flush out the inside with a hole in the bottom that was also inside the firebox. My wife and I are in the early stages of establishing a distillery here in Alaska. While the state license requires that a plan of the building be submitted to the fire marshall, building codes and regulations are pretty uneven up here...my mortgage company has more to say about the way my house is built than either state or local government does. I will find out shortly what the fire mashall has to say. We have not decided if we will buy a still or have one made up here. But I think we will construct a safe, efficient natural gas driven firebox built around a copper pot with a packed column on top of it. Robert

How do you clean a boiler in a permenant firebox?

This is a great discussion. I see scientists, regulatory wonks, organic chemists, and artists all at work here and all with a conscience.

That was a great explanation. I looked at couple of industrial examples but I did not see how the concept applied to separating ethynol from other chemicals. On Skyrocket Distillery's webpage they say they use a proprietary compound catalytic distillation process. I was just wondering what a compound catalytic distillation process might do. Thank you for your response. Robert

What does compound catalytic distillation consist of? Thank you.

After looking at the information on the methods of distilling I am curious why so many distillers use complicated (and expensive) stills that employ plates in their columns instead of using packed columns. Why not use a sophisticated still with a packed column? Thank you. Robert