shadow
Hazard to Self
Posts: 52
Registered: 17-10-2007
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
stupid still or probably the user
My setup has 24/40 fittings, and my heat source have varied from a camp stove, coleman stove, heater stirrer, to glas-col mantle.
The distillate goes up the adapter, collects, and rains back down into the flask, with very little going out into the condenser.
How can I improve the efficiency of this simple setup?
|
|
|
DrP
National Hazard
Posts: 625
Registered: 28-9-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: exothermic
|
|
Try lagging the column.
Some other threads talk about speeding up distillation - I think this one might :
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?goto=lastp...
|
|
|
MagicJigPipe
International Hazard
Posts: 1554
Registered: 19-9-2007
Location: USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Suspicious
|
|
What are you distilling?
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
|
|
|
chemrox
International Hazard
Posts: 2961
Registered: 18-1-2007
Location: UTM
Member Is Offline
Mood: LaGrangian
|
|
There's not close to enough information here. A description of the setup would include the type and length of the column, the type of distillation
head and the material being distilled. Without these specifics no one can address the problem except in total speculation. It sounds like a column
flooding problem caused by excessive cooling but I really need the details.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
|
|
|
Mumbles
Hazard to Others
Posts: 436
Registered: 12-3-2003
Location: US
Member Is Offline
Mood: Procrastinating
|
|
One simple fix would be to wrap the distillation adapter in aluminum foil or something similar. It will help to keep the vapor hor to get it into the
condensor. It may also reduce the purity of your compound if two distillables are present, as mixtures will be able to pass together easier. Then
again, if you were actually concerned about purity, you'd probably be using a fractionating column.
|
|
|
chemrox
International Hazard
Posts: 2961
Registered: 18-1-2007
Location: UTM
Member Is Offline
Mood: LaGrangian
|
|
I assumed he had a column of some kind and wrapping and/or heating it would solve the problem but he doesn't say that does he? He says the distillate
falls back down from inside the head. So the v.p. is so low that distillation isn't starting at the operating temperature. More heat is indicated.
I also wonder if the setup is leaky?
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
|
|
|
shadow
Hazard to Self
Posts: 52
Registered: 17-10-2007
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Thank you all for the responses.
The distillate is tap water.
The "lab" temperature has been around 50 F lately, I'm sure that had something to do with it.
The foil seemed to help.
A large coffee can on top of an electric 1500 watt stove heater(air bath) with the foil seemed to work but the output was only 1 drop every second or
less.
I was expecting more.
Something cracked my 500ml RB flask in all this effort.
I sealed the system and was able to increase pressure in the system.(everything is clamped and sealed)
I also changed the condenser to one with less volume.
I was hoping to get a steady stream from the setup, I'm sure I can rig up a tea kettle to blow steam into the condenser at a far greater rate than the
flask.
In Vogel's the simple distillation setup shows distillation flask with a side arm.
The side arms are usually around 7mm to 11mm. There is no mention of how the side arm is sealed to the condenser.
My condenser inlets are 24/40.
How are these pieces sealed?
thanks ahead,
GC
|
|
|
evil_lurker
National Hazard
Posts: 767
Registered: 12-3-2005
Location: United States of Elbonia
Member Is Offline
Mood: On the wagon again.
|
|
Water is hard enough to boil as it is... that said, you can't just heat a flask on top of a stove heater using an air bath and expect it to work woth
a damn... basically your simply not transferring enough heat to get the job done... hell my 1L heating mantle only puts out 380 watts of power, yet it
will easily heat and distill something over 200ºC... and thats with the power below 70%!
And I'm not sure anyone has told you this, but NEVER EVER SEAL A DISTILLATION SETUP UNLESS YOU WANT to risk AN EXPLOSION!!!!! That is
probably the cardinal rul of stills.
If you want to know how a glass still looks when all the pieces are all connected, it looks like something below:
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
