Newbie Simple question???

[Workpress]

Hi All

 

Theoretically when Distilling into the tails the output of the still slows way down in terms of speed of takeoff whilst temperature rises both in the boiler and the distillate. so am i to assume when going deep into the tails, do I just ride this out as a slow process or turn the heat up correct for temp until I am at the desired abv... 

can someone please explain this if i am off of the mark

 

Workpress

 

[adamOVD]

You can turn up the heat to speed things up if your system can handle it, but the temp of the boiler won't go up until alcohol% of the boiler charge drops, and therefore the boiling point of that mixture rises. That boiling temp will stay the same regardless of how much heat you put into it, the speed of the output will just change.

[Workpress]

Hey adamOVD

thank you for that information as I ponder this idea further. So as long as my condenser can knock it down i can speed things up with adjusting my temp control.

thank you

workpress

[Alex_Sor]

in Physics this is called "phase transition".
a simple example: until all the water in your kettle boils away (as long as there is liquid water in the kettle), the temperature of the kettle will never exceed 100 Celsius. (at atmospheric pressure). Only when all the liquid turns into vapor will the temperature rise again.

In the case of a mixture of alcohol and water, the boiling point depends on the concentration of alcohol and water. When the alcohol vaporizes, the rest of the liquid boils at a higher temperature.
If you do not want to steam up the "tails" then you need to use vacuum distillation instead of classical.

[SlickFloss]

There’s several points of diminishing returns on your throttle…. Won’t do what you think it will even though you’re adding more energy. Also if your trying to do cuts deep into your tails hitting the gas will bleed your cuts and then there’s no point in what you’re doing. Also, aside, an interesting perspective perhaps, as your run progresses your theoretical energy increases- if you’re running three full turns and you boil away half your kettle you’re still applying the same three turns to half the mass. If you’re cutting the collection in the tails at all it would behoove you to actually apply leas energy : )