donut Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 Has anyone seen or worked with a solar heated still? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott @ Twenty2Vodka Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 do these actually exist? I couldn't imagine the infrastructure costs or time required to distill any salable quantity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delaware_phoenix Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 A solar heated still probably wouldn't work for practical reasons. here's some solar info. http://www.solarbuzz.com/Consumer/FastFacts.htm For a system to generate 1 KwH electricity the site offers $9000 as a price. Maybe you could find cheaper, but assume ballpark. So that's about 3400 BTU/hr. There's propane burners that work better than that for a whole lot less money. Even the electric company is cheaper by lots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles@AEppelTreow Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 I've pondered a solar alquitar as a stripping still. But I suspect the wash would go bad in the time it took. And I don't know how much of the alcohol you'd get out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51%Corn Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 meh. The only way solar would be useful would be to have a solar plant similar to the mirror based fields in the mojave or the few in spain that are working with hot salt towers... You'd pretty much have a massive sized generation plant to produce consistent steam for your purposes of stilling or mash cooking.. there are some homebrew ways of making heliostats to acheive this, but on a small scale the materials are just too spendy for the ROI to be useful commercially.. now, if you could get a waste steam link from an existing power plant.. that's the hot lick right there.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delaware_phoenix Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 Wouldn't be surprised if there's some extra steam available at a nuclear power plant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted April 20, 2010 Share Posted April 20, 2010 Wouldn't be surprised if there's some extra steam available at a nuclear power plant. So *that's* how you get your absinthe so green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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