From: babb@rapnet.sanders.lockheed.com (Scott Babb)
Subject: Solar Fuel Alcohol (Was Re: Mary Jane has a great Biomass)
Organization: Sanders Associates
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 13:57:03 GMT

Bruce Harlan (harlan@crchh347.bnr.ca) wrote:
: A couple of points here... burning good corn fuel in cars is a sacrilege.
: Burning poor corn fuel is not. 
: 
: [...]
:
: So- do we have any engineer-types that can dream up a cheap solar still?
: Let's set some criteria:
: 
: Must be feasible- all products must be available in the consumer market.	
: Must be inexpensive. The more "common" parts used, the better. 
: Must be simple. Something the Average Joe might be able to build in the	
:   garage if A. Joe were reasonably mechanically inclined and somewhat
:   resourceful.	
: 	
: No dream products or dream designs- gotta be functional.	
: 


I remember seeing a design for an extremely cheap, simple solar still
somewhere.  As I recall, it was very much like an insulated cold frame for
gardening: (DANGER!  ASCII graphics to follow!)


                                        ___
      Distillate        Glass        ---|#|
         Collector        \       ---   |#|
                  \        \   ---      |#|
                   \        ---         |#|
      Insulated     \    ---            |#|
      Wood Frame   __\---               |#|   Side view cutaway
                \  |#|U                 |#|
                 \ |#|                  |#|
                  \|#|__________________|#|
   <--South        |######################|
                   |----------------------|

The inside of the insulated wood frame is lined with plastic.  The mash
mixture is dumped in the bottom of the still and the glass cover is closed.
The sun shines through the glass and heats the mash mixture, evaporating
the alcohol (which has a lower boiling point than water) which condenses
on the glass cover and runs down the inside of the glass.  When the
distillate reaches the bottom of the glass, it drips off into a U-shaped
collector tray which is angled to channel the distillate to one end of
the still, where it runs out of the still into a container through a hose.

It's a pretty simple design, and it doesn't have any moving parts other
than the hinged glass cover.  On the other hand, I think that the output
isn't very high-grade, either.  Perhaps the distillate could be used as
input to a second stage still which ran at higher temperatures via the
use of reflectors (or fresnel lenses or whatever) to obtain a higher-proof
final output.


Charles Van Duren (charlesv@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca) wrote:
: bj368@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mike E. Romano) writes:
: 
: [...]
: 
: >Actually a similar situation exists with farm produced alcohol.
: >Only 8 acres of corn or similar crop is sufficient to produce 
: >enough alcohol to power a car for a year of average use.
: 
: Corn culture is very hard on the growing medium, and uses a great
: deal of energy input. Not to mention distillation. Sort of like
: building a machine which produces 1 gallon of fuel from an input of
: 10 gallons.

Depending on the malting process, the energy input to harvest corn
for fuel alcohol production may not be as high as you think.  You
probably don't have to worry about removing the ears from the stalks.
You may be able to just shred the entire plant and use the whole thing
as input to your malter.

How about grain or sugar beets?  Corn isn't necessarily the best crop
for the production of fuel alcohol.

--
   Lockheed Sanders may disagree so these are solely the opinions of:
             Scott L. Babb - babb@rapnet.sanders.lockheed.com
              "We didn't inherit the Earth from our parents,
                   we are borrowing it from our children."