I would like to come up with a simple still for making alcohol, mostly as a fuel supplement. I am looking for something easy, maybe in five-gallon batches. Any ideas of a cheap and easy method? Potatoes or beets would be used.
Here's a couple I have stashed away on this machine. If you don't plan to drink it , you won't really care about keeping out the methyl and and esther fractions. A generic listing of vaporization temperatures for the various components you're likely to get out of a highly fermented sugar based mash: Acetone – 56.5C (134F) Methanol (wood alcohol) – 64C (147F) Ethyl acetate – 77.1C (171F) Ethanol – 78C (172F) 2-Propanol (rubbing alcohol) – 82C (180F) 1-Propanol – 97C (207F) Water – 100C (212F) Butanol – 116C (241F) Amyl alcohol – 137.8C (280F) Furfural – 161C (322F)
When I lived in Franklin county Virginia we just went to Sam's Club and bought sugar. Yeah you don't want to drink anything that comes off the still at less than 172F, it may be a few degrees cooler depending on your elevation. For example where I am, the boiling point of water is 204 because of the reduced atmospheric pressure.
Also keep in mind that the temp needs to be measured in the gaseous portion of the product stream, not the liquid.
