Loading the 3D lab · the run and the panels work meanwhile · the 2D sketch meanwhile
Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · click a plate, a valve, the heater, the condenser or the jarsDrag to turn · pinch to zoom · tap a plate, a valve, the heater, the condenser or the jars
A sketch, not to scale · clicktap a plate, a valve, the heater, the condenser or the jars
Temperature follows strength
A boiling liquid sits on the blue boiling curve; its vapor lies on the orange dew curve at the same temperature. Every plate is plotted where it is right now, with a dashed tie line to the vapor it sends upward.
Fusel oil in the still
Fusel oil is the higher alcohols of the charge: propanol, isobutanol and isoamyl alcohol. In weak liquid they are more volatile than ethanol and in strong liquid less, so they gather on the plates where the liquid turns from weak to strong. How much the plates hold back depends on their number, their efficiency and the reflux; the recipe's four plates hold back only part, so fusel oil comes over through the whole run. When a plate's liquid holds a few percent of them and little alcohol, it would split into a water-rich liquid and a fusel oil layer. Point at the map to read a plate; click it to select the plate.
This experiment's charge is ethanol and water only, so there is no fusel oil to follow. The Heads & tails recipe is a rye mash with its measured congeners: methanol, acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and the fusel alcohols propanol, isobutanol and isoamyl alcohol.
It starts from cold; the current run is replaced.
Where each alcohol gathers
each in % of its own peak on the stages · boiler to top · ▲ a side draw
When each alcohol comes over
in what runs into the jars, each in % of its own peak · the jars' changes marked
Where each alcohol is now
in g, and in % of the charge's
Heads in the still
Heads are the most volatile congeners of the charge: methanol, acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate. Acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate are several times more volatile than ethanol, so they rise to the top of the column and come over ahead of the ethanol: the heads cut and the first jars take most of them. Methanol is close to ethanol in volatility (a little more volatile in strong spirit, less in weak), so it comes over through the whole run. Point at the map to read a plate; click it to select the plate.
This experiment's charge is ethanol and water only, so there are no heads to follow. The Heads & tails recipe is a rye mash with its measured congeners: the heads methanol, acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate, and the fusel alcohols.
It starts from cold; the current run is replaced.
Temperatures
°C · boiler warm, top cool
Helmet’s natural reflux
what condenses on the copper over the boiler and runs back
Cooling water
L/h, and the water out
Strength on each plate
% vol at 20 °C
Product
collected kg and strength
Selected
Boiler
Strength—% vol at 20 °C
Temperature——
↑ Vapor out—
↓ Liquid out—
Hold-up—
Components
Temperatures are real liquid temperatures from the energy balance. A boiling plate sits on the boiling point of its own strength, which is why the two readings move together. Dry plates show their metal temperature.
