State of the Art Alcohol Production

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But the possibility of using solar energy to supplement the fermentation or distillation process (or both) was too good to ignore. We figured that a column still-fired in part by the sun-would combine the best features of Crombie's unit with the efficiency of a conventional distillery . . . in addition to taking advantage of thermal storage which we would, naturally, incorporate into the design. Though this is one project that's still "in the works", it looks as though it'll perform well when completed . . . and if it does, we'll naturally offer it-in the magazine-as an example to others.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

Now that we've completed our latest prototype the 6" column still with a capacity of up to eight gallons per hour that we showed you in MOTHER NO. 61, page 87-we feel pretty comfortable, if not downright pleased, at what we've accomplished in the short span of a year or so. And because interest in the "homegrown alcohol" movement has reached such sizable proportions-and because, unfortunately, there are profiteers peddling stills and information at this very moment who [1] know little, if anything, about alcohol production, and hence [2] shouldn't be trying to educate folks on alcohol in the first place-we feel it's important that we continue to pursue the subject of alcohol fuel, both in the pages of MOTHER and in our seminar programs . . . in order to keep the record straight on ethanol.

And by the way, our efforts have not gone unnoted. Besides unintentionally serving as a clearinghouse for alcohols-fuel information (which does take time, but just as often does a world of good educationally), MOTHER's pages have been entered in the Congressional Record, and our staffers have helped several state governments reorganize and ultimately relegislate-their outdated and obsolete statutes on home alcohol production and use!

But we're not about to neglect research, either. Our future course includes the almost certain possibility of making reasonably priced plans, components, and hardware for the construction of a 12" column still (with a capacity of 22 gallons an hour) available-on a build it-yourself basis-to MOM's readers. Meanwhile, we haven't forgotten about the flat-plate solar distillery . . . indeed we fully intend to [1] test the concept further, [2] improve it where we can, and [3] publish a detailed report on the results of our work as soon as possible. In the interim, however, we have to rely on what you-our readers and subscribers-tell us about your research results, good or bad. Because even if the prototype wasn't as good as we originally thought it was, there's bound to be at least a handful of tenacious tinkerers somewhere who'll make simple solar distillation work well in spite of itself . . . and to whom we'll all owe a debt of gratitude for their perseverance!

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