Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

does anyone have any calculations on how much solar heat a given sheet of glass can trap?
i'm thinking of having a go at making a glass still and using a combination of the sun's heat and vacuum (lowers the required boiling temp) to distill high quality spirits
the reason this would produce a fine drinking alcohol is the lack of direct heat means no burnt particles in the mash.
I believe in perth's 40c summers i could easily get the 78c required for distiallation at 1 atmosphere

Vaporizing water is easy in full sun. Even easier if you use reflectors.

I don't know the numbers in terms of BTUs, but IIRC sunlight is 7.5kW/m^2 at the Earth's surface.

and you only need the differencial of 2 degs to get condensation
here is a link http://www.solaqua.com/solstilbas.html
http://nariphaltan.virtualave.net/ethanoldist.pdf

another thing about the solar is more of the good flavour will make it through

Whilst this is entirely possible, it remains to be seen as to whether it is something that you would actually want to do.

My reservations about this method would be the fact that it is so hard to control. Reliable and consistent results would be impossible. As fractional distillation is based on the differing vaporisation points of the various components of the mixture being distilled this is a big deal.

Fusels (the unpleasant flavours) and methanol (the hangover) have different distillation points to ethanol, thus the key to good distillation is to maximise ethanol extraction whilst minimising unwanted products getting into the distillate. I don't really see how you could do that without temperature control.

Cfuse

Thought it was the length of the fraction distilling column above the mash and control of the temp at the top of the column not the retort that determined what and when you get out.

Must admit though if the mash is overheated, be a hard go

And I'm sure Timmy meant distilling essential oils and could possibly heat water to transfer the heat to the retort

yeh, but how do you control the temp at the top of the column if you cant control the temp of the mash? obviously the cooling jacket flow can be used but would need some automated control fi solar was being used.........

Steve temp of the mash controlled by placing retort in water bath and heating water bath not retort.
Timmy link http://homedistiller.org/refluxdesign.htm

cooling jacket, adjust as required. as long as a cloud doesn't some over you'd be fine

Seems like a lot of trouble.....

explosion hazard?