Water distillation Lab, 1.15.17

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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.

Today was another water distillation run.  It was disappointing.  It appears that I may have gotten better results if I had cleaned a bit more thoroughly.  However, even a thorough cleaning is not going to get everything out.  The automotive heater hose must be adding contaminants back into the water, which is ruining the results.  The heater hose would have to go, but it would be hard to replace.

Initial conditions were 103 ppm, final was 69 ppm.  An improvement, sure.  But not that much of one.

Not only quality was disappointing, but so was the quantity.  Two hours on the still, and only five ounces were collected.  Not very good considering the energy expenditure.

Losses were nearly half.  Out of sixteen ounces that went in, seven were remaining after the end.  Since five were produced, that leave four ounces lost.  I figured on better results than this.

A curious thing happened, though.  In trying to aid in condensation, I used wet towels dipped in a water bath.  I figured that capillary action in the towels would replace the water that was being evaporated from the heat.  Not only did that seem to happen, but the amount of water of water pulled out of that and collected was twenty eight ounces.  Wow!

I think I can use this in some fashion.  Perhaps as a feed into the sand filter.  This is working like a siphon.

Moving on to other things in this lab: 

• I obtained some club soda and used it on the dishwashing water.  I does appear to cause some precipitate to come out of solution.  Interesting.
• I bought Brita filter to use for experiments only.
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There may be another run, but I no longer expect much improvement on these numbers.  If I can get the stuff to come out of solution before distillation, final results may be better.