Seawater still plans?

[Mountaintrekker]

Hey all,
It's been awhile, but we now have internet for the winter! Nice to be back!
That being said... we live on the Alaska coast and I've been running some methods of boiling seawater and condensing it into distilled water. Anyone have some more plans and ideas? I'm thinking of getting a stainless steel stockpot like a 4 to 5 gal one and use some sort of stainless funnel and use plumbers solder to solder a copper coil on and have it drain into a water tank. Will copper solder to stainless steel? I'd use this on top of a woodburner stove or over a firepit.
A nice benefit is making sea salt at the same time!
Thoughts, questions, ideas?

Mountaintrekker

[canid]

any still will work.

the soldering stainless steel will work fine if you brush [and clean] the surfaces on the seam to be soldered well, and get a good bead. it's not like welding, where the two pieces are being fused, so you need only have a good contact to an imperfect surface [for grip]. the pieces are put together, and the molten amalgum [your solder] fills the gap.

it won't necessarily be incredibly strong, but it needn't be anything other than water tight. there should be no significant differential of pressure from the steam, and if there is, you're running too hot or your line to your condenser is too small in diameter. are you hoping to air cool your coil, or will you be using water?

[canid]

another thing i would keep in mind is that this will be a significant tax on heating fuel, unless you are mostly/only running your still while heating the house.

large volumes of water will take long to boil without a pretty intense burn, and will require a long boil time once the initial boiling temperature is reached.

[Mountaintrekker]

Heating fuel be wood my friend. No tax...yet! This is just in case a clean fresh water source is unavailable and also yeilds an usable/tradeable product. Our wood stove is plenty hot to boil water all day long in the winter.

[Mountaintrekker]

Just some more thoughts... this would be for our small cabin that isn't built yet far off the road system and in the boonies. I should run the coil outside and then back into the house, that would cool it well enough without too much hassle! Nice to have distilled water for canning/winemaking and topping off the batteries too!

[canid]

Heating fuel be wood my friend. No tax...yet!

that doesn't keep it from being a relevant concern. you still need to use it efficiently when you do eventually need it.

I should run the coil outside and then back into the house, that would cool it well enough without too much hassle!

during the cold season, certainly.

on the other hand, extreme cold could freeze it in the condenser, causing blockage. you would also not have the option of using it during any warm weather you might have, though you might not need it then.

[Mischief]

As you live in Alaska ,non Hippy Dippy Type,and use wood think steam recovery

mischief

[canid]

that's what a condensation coil is. it's a device for recovering steam.

i don't understand what hippie has to do with it. any wood MT uses must be purchased or cut. it takes a lot of wood to fire a still long enough to collect much water, when daily needs are considered, and efficiency is a worthwhile consideration.

[Pict]

Sounds like a great project. I would think about using a screw type coupling to connect the pipe to the funnel. It just seems less prone to breakage.

In very cold weather wouldn't you have an abundance of ice for making water? I would also think in costal Alaska that rain catchment would also produce well in the warmer months. You wouldn't have the advantage of making salt but Alaska isn't really short on rain and ice. Mac

[Rick]

I have no idea how large of a pot you have in mind but I think you are making it harder than it needs to be.

Take a large pressure cooker/canner. Attach a plastic hose to the nipple that extends from the lid. It's the one the weight sits on. Make a few coils and hang the other end in a bucket to collect the water. That should do it. It doesn't take much to revert the steam to water and you don't need to route it outside to do it. It's really a matter of distance from the steam source. That's why there are coils. The further you force the steam to travel the more heat loss it will have.

See if you can find a pressure cooker/canner at a thrift store or ask around if anyone has one they can't use. If the seal is bad, that's okay. Remember, you aren't trying to pressurize the container. It's just a convenient vessel because it has the nipple to attach to. You can certainly do the same thing with any pot and lid.

Google homemade still and you should find lots of examples.

[canid]

two concerns there:

1. plastic and rubber materials are thermo-insulative, and therefore requires more cooling than a thermoconductive coil would.

2. the plastic will get quite hot. i've played around with vinyl for distillation before, and at the junction to the outlet, it can get hot enough to deform or melt it.

pressure cookers certainly do make fine still pots.

[canid]

that is not to say it will not work, only that is is not ideal and the hose will not have much service life.

[Rick]

I can see we need Coot on here to clear this all up.

[canid]

He and I don't see eye to eye on the subject of distillation.

[Rick]

That's 'cause he's taller.

[canid]

i think that might be it.

[Mountaintrekker]

I guess I could explain why I want this option a little bit better. We had Mt. Redoubt erupt last year and the ash contaminated the snow,ice and most surface water for a couple of months. So... I think this would be a resonable way to make fresh water from seawater in such a case.
Maybe I'm overthinking it a bit... thats why I presented it to you folks!

[Pal334]

I guess I could explain why I want this option a little bit better. We had Mt. Redoubt erupt last year and the ash contaminated the snow,ice and most surface water for a couple of months. So... I think this would be a resonable way to make fresh water from seawater in such a case.
Maybe I'm overthinking it a bit... thats why I presented it to you folks!

I don't have much to contribute, but I must say is a great idea. Especially if you can get the concept working for minimal or no cost. Never hurts to have alternatives. I am looking forward to all the ideas.

[crashdive123]

MT - good to see you around. I have made a saltwater still on a much smaller scale just to see how it would perform. My design was not very efficient. I used improvised materials (trash) that I found. The addition of a coil would, I imagine work well (as long as it allowed the steam to condense). I do do like the idea of using a pressure cooker - seems that may be for efficient still.

[Batch]

If your just making a pot still and not looking to make a still to turn that homemade wine to something with a bit more medicinal purpose. Use a threaded compression coupling to connect the worm to the pot. If you needed to monitor the temperature for...Uhmmm... medicinal purposes you could pop out the pressure valve and pop in a candy thermometer with a gasket. If your worm clogged it would just pop clear out.

That way you could still have a pressure cooker as well.