"Heat exchanger" is the key to distilling liquids. Basically, from
a person knowing the concept only, there are 3 long tubes bonded together
in a side-by-side fashion for hi thermal conductivity between them. At one
end the alchol enters one tube and exits another; from the remaining
garbage exits. All are nearly the same temperature.
At the other the input tube is wrapped in a few circles and connected
to the output tube. The wrapped tube is contained in a heated chamber and
given means to seperate the gas (alcohol) and liquid (garbage) and direct
the liquid into the proper tube.
Everything is wrapped with heaps of insulation so no heat is lost.
First step to making such a gadget would probably be searching recent
patent records for distilling methods. hello google...

Hul

Scromlette wrote:
It's got some minor metal work involved, but unfortunately no guns or
politics.....

I use quite a bit of methylated spirits to clean electronic PCBs as part
of a cottage business I run. The solvent becomes laden with dissolved
rosin flux & has to be discarded so I've been thinking about distilling
it for reuse. It's costing me 3 or 4 dollars per litre.


I was toying with the idea of electrically heating an old pressure
cooker vented through either a copper coil or an old refrigerator heat
exchanger. I'm not sure if draping wet cloth on the heat exchanger would
be sufficient cooling.

I think the BP of the methylated spirits is ~ 82 Celsius (180F).
Has anyone any experience doing this sort of thing (moonshine perhaps?)

Will it be worth the effort?