Making a Methanol Recovery System at home
What we have with us is a Mixture of liquids with different boiling points.In Such a mixture of liquids the boiling point of the mix will lie somewhere in the middle, and this will depend on the relative concentrations of each liquid. Pure water boils at 100 deg C, and pure methanol boils at 64.7 deg C, but a mixture of water and methanol will boil at some point in between. The major point about distillation is that when a mixture like that boils, then the vapour given off is richer in the most volatile component, and when that vapour condenses then the resulting liquid has a lower boiling point than the mix it came from. By repeating this boiling and re condensation process up a column, using packing to hold the condensed liquid at each stage, you can separate the components to higher grades of purity.
When you heat the mixture, it will heat up until the new intermediate boiling point is reached. When you first start a distilling run, the packing in the column will be at room temperature, so vapour given off by the boiler condenses on the first cool packing it reaches. In condensing, the vapour gives up a lot of heat, and this warms that packing until the liquid on it boils again. However, this liquid is richer in volatiles than the mix in the boiler, so its boiling point is lower. When it does boil again, from the heat given off by more condensing vapour, what you get is even richer in those most volatile components.
This process of boiling and condensing continues up the column and, because the condensed liquid is always getting richer in volatiles, the temperature gradually falls the higher you go. The temperature at any point is governed solely by the boiling point of that particular liquid mix. You'll notice that once boiling, the temperature of the vapour at the top of the column gradually increases, this is because the mixture is being slowly depleted of the most volatile components.
This temperature needs to be monitored constantly so as to keep purity of methanol at its best.
Ready made distilling columns can be bought, otherwise you can use common stuff to device one. The quality of the methanol can be increased by repetition of the process over and over again.
Reusing key components will help reduce the overall cost of Bio diesel produced.
This same process can be used to separate Methanol before wash or after wash. The dynamics will vary though.
When you heat the mixture, it will heat up until the new intermediate boiling point is reached. When you first start a distilling run, the packing in the column will be at room temperature, so vapour given off by the boiler condenses on the first cool packing it reaches. In condensing, the vapour gives up a lot of heat, and this warms that packing until the liquid on it boils again. However, this liquid is richer in volatiles than the mix in the boiler, so its boiling point is lower. When it does boil again, from the heat given off by more condensing vapour, what you get is even richer in those most volatile components.
This process of boiling and condensing continues up the column and, because the condensed liquid is always getting richer in volatiles, the temperature gradually falls the higher you go. The temperature at any point is governed solely by the boiling point of that particular liquid mix. You'll notice that once boiling, the temperature of the vapour at the top of the column gradually increases, this is because the mixture is being slowly depleted of the most volatile components.
This temperature needs to be monitored constantly so as to keep purity of methanol at its best.
Ready made distilling columns can be bought, otherwise you can use common stuff to device one. The quality of the methanol can be increased by repetition of the process over and over again.
Reusing key components will help reduce the overall cost of Bio diesel produced.
This same process can be used to separate Methanol before wash or after wash. The dynamics will vary though.
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