Still Spirits Turbo 500 (T-500) Stainless Steel Reflux Condenser Column

Distillation is the process or method of separating liquid mixtures based on the differences in the volatility of their boiling points. Distillation is a unit operation that physically separates the blended solution, it does not a chemical reaction, but can be used to separate chemical solutions. Commercially you would see this in the petroleum industry, with the distillation of crude oil into its various chemical compounds. You may also see distilled water, this is a high quality and purity water product which is used for special applications such as car batteries. The topic that we are going to be focusing on is the use of distillation equipment in the production of distilled alcohol, also known as a distillery.

Using the Turbo 500 T-500, we are able to use the benefits of distillation to make our own distilled water, essential oils, alcohol and many other great products. I will talk about water to begin with, as most of us have boiled water at some stage in our life, and possibly distilled it in high school science. Water has a freezing point of <0°C (state of solid – ice), boiling point of 100°C (state of liquid – water when between 0°C and 99.9°C), >100°C water will then be in a gas form known as steam. When you boil a kettle, you will see bubbles come up through the water and reach the top, releasing steam. In the Turbo 500 distillation unit, we funnel this steam through a long pipe called a reflux which is packed with special shaped cupped stainless and copper saddles, the gas vapour cools as it travels through the saddles and creates condensation as it drops below its boiling point (returns back to a liquid form). In the Turbo 500 T-500 we also use an arrangement of special cooling apparatus to help the condensation process.

With a mixture of water and alcohol, the boiling point will be at ~78°C, as ethanol (alcohol) has a boiling point of ~78°C, the mixture will boil off the lowest boiling point substance, until all of that substance with the lower boiling point has evaporated and is exhausted. The boiling volume would then move onto the next boiling point which would be 100°C (water). One thing that should be noted that, the higher the percentage of a particular substance boiling, in this case alcohol, the higher the % in the distillate (final product) will be, as there will be a percentage of water also evaporating, diluting the final product. Higher quality stills like that of the Turbo 500 T-500 unit improves the total final % of the distillate and the yield (how much we can extract from the boiling solution).
 

What is special about the Still Spirits Turbo 500 T-500?

The Still Spirits Turbo 500 T-500 reflux condenser is a little bit special, it works on the principles of ceiling temperatures, where through its intelligent design it prevents chemical substance above a certain boiling point being processed. Unlike other reflux condensers on the market the Turbo 500 T-500 works with a focus on the water flow and controlling the temperature of the water flow out. Assuming that the temperature of the water flow is stable, it is able to create a ceiling threshold temperature based on the water flow out. So effectively, If you are looking at collecting a product of a boiling point of ~78°C, water flow out would be set just to collect everything up to this temperature, then prevent any other products with a boiling point above ~78°C up the reflux and into the condenser.

This technology break through was only developed through the redesigning of the contemporary reflux, designed to make distillation easier with hassle free operation. It’s designed to set and forget as it operates until exhaustion, requiring simple initial setup with water flow and turning off once distillation is complete.

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NOTE: T-500 Boiler Sold Separately