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Designing my own still


wigglywalker

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I have also heard of a low-tech steam injection using a beer keg.....but it involves using direct flame under the keg.

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How about a hot water boiler? They are really cheap on craigslist. Steam boilers just don't come up, too specialized I guess. There were a lot of houses built around here with hot water radiant floor heating, and many owners don't like them, so $3,000 boilers are selling for $250.

What is the heat source for these $250 boilers?

If it is a diesel burner they are very easy to convert to run on waste veg oil or motor oil, so VERY cheap to run

Either buy a new waste burner from China for about $600 or buy the parts and convert the original burner.

I run all my distillery on waste veg oil, direct fired still and hot water + low pressure steam

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These boilers are natural gas and propane....but,,,waste oil eh? I happen to have a restaurant, with deep fryers....even so, this is not a lot of fuel, only about 10 to 15 gallons a week. I could make a deal with some more restaurants as fuel needs increased...bottle of whiskey for 50 gallons of used fryer oil sounds about right....thanks for the idea.

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PeteB, If you don't mind please, what is your waste fuel consumption and your liquor production, over say, an average month? I don't have access to natural gas, and propane is about 3 times more expensive. I am very concerned with fuel costs. Your idea would be both economically and environmentally beneficial. Typical fuel costs for small distilleries here in New Mexico seem to be running from $350 to $750 a month on natural gas for steam boilers from 400k btus to 1,500k btus. I pay $22 for 5 gallons of quality canola oil for my deep fryers. That's just over $4 a gallon, not much more than diesel. I could change my fryers more often,,,,increase food quality, and stockpile used oil during months when the distillery isn't doing much, like dead of winter or heat of summer. I found waste oil steam boilers on Alibaba. This is a very interesting idea, thank you.

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The fuel costs me nothing (except 2 miles on my biofuelled tractor to collect it) so I have never bothered to do the maths.

VERY roughly it takes 1 litre of fryer oil to make one 700 mL bottle of 40%abv spirit. It should be roughly the same as using diesel except there is a bit of basic filtering to do. I double pot distil and I would assume a single run in a column still would use less fuel.

Allow a bit of extra room for storage tanks

My Son is setting up a brewery near my distillery and he has a waste oil steam boiler lined up.

I prefer waste veg oil but they run just as well on waste motor oil or just about any liquid that will burn, including heads if the proof is high enough

****Waste motor oil burns visibly cleanly but check with local air pollution regulations*****

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Another rough number that's in my head

1 US gallon per hour will produce about 40KW of heat

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  • 3 weeks later...

You should use no less than .12 or 1/8th inch thick copper. Your going to have allot of weight in the pot when it is full.

If you need help building this contact us matt@hbscopper . We can build the entire system or parts for you.

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SO, I bought a 150K BTU water boiler, already jetted for propane, for $175. With new circulation pump. Rated for 250 degrees F. I plan on putting it right next to the 100 gallon SS still, in a firewall type box vented to the outside with outside combustion air. I will build the top out of 16 ga/48oz copper which I found in Tucson at Industrial Metal Supply. Very cool place. Like a welder in a candy store....I am sure this will work. BUT, I have plans for a 250 gallon stripper still, and I have my doubts if it will work for that. I may have to find a bigger boiler....These water boilers are easy to find cheap, but not the steam boilers.....

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  • 2 weeks later...

If your mounting your head on the top of this just consider how much it weighs. We use 96 0z copper on ours with a 4 plate 6" column. It sounds like if you have any problems you can fix them yourself though. That does make a difference. As a manufacturer we have to make sure that we over build because We intend for our stills to last a lifetime with many years of service.

If you can build your own this may not be of as much concern, Good luck and have fun. It's a great thing to build anything and know that you did that.

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