Mother's Home-Scale Vacuum Distillery

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Vacuum distillation does, however, offer several distinct advantages that easily offset any frustrations surrounding its energy requirements, and these especially favor small-scale operators:

[1] Hot water alone can provide all the heat necessary for the successful distillation of alcohol. This eliminates the need for costly federal—and state—approved boilers, and opens the door to the use of inexpensive homebuilt solar collectors.

[2] The mash doesn't require much preheating, so the system is brought into equilibrium faster than it would be in a conventional still . . . thus saving time, energy, and alcohol.

[3] The distillery can operate within a broad range of temperatures, making the system quite flexible, since the vacuum pressure will adjust—automatically—to any increase or decrease of heat in the reboiler.

[4] If all the component parts are reliable, the still will come into a steady state early in the run, and remain there for the duration. This is probably our unit's single most desirable feature, since it eliminates the need for distillery supervision .. . especially if an automatic safety device is used to shut down the system should the mash or fuel supply run out.

After weighing the benefits and weaknesses of an "evacuated" distillery, we're convinced that the pressure—relieved system—even though it might be slightly more costly and tedious to build than is a conventional still—is well worth the extra effort, especially for the part—time fuel producer. And as an added bonus the design shown here can be increased in size, if necessary (see the accompanying chart), to fit a distiller's specific needs. It'd be pretty difficult to find a fuel-distilling system-either homebuilt or factory madethat answers the needs of the "little guy" (or gal) as well as this one does. And after all, that's exactly the person we designed it for!

In addition, we'd like to remind everyone once again that a permit from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is required before you can produce your own ethanol fuel. Check with your local ATF office for all of the application details.

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