Wow, I've looked at many sources about activated carbon and I think you covered it very well and went in depth about it. Love your channel. I've tried carbon filtering myself but only a gravity fed tube and it takes forever. I just gave up as the initial product didn't need it that much honestly. I wanted to compare and not much difference I found detectable Imo.
Literally the best content I've ever seen on distilling science. How much neutral that has been diluted to 50% can generally be ran through activated coconut carbon before you need to change it out? So a 1cu/ft sample of coconut activated carbon can clean X gallons of spirit. Generally. I know, the water makeup can affect it. Just wondering a general amount to be looking at before I should be considering a change. I've also seen a lot of recommendations on making your cut on spirit before running through carbon. The carbon supposedly reacts better at a lower spirit percentage. Other benefit is it also cleans the cut water. P.S. for larger stills, using a stainless soda keg with fittings is a easy way to make one. Fill can with activated carbon and one end feeds in the bottom while you allow the finished to flow out the top fitting. Although a large diffuser put on the inlet at the bottom is recommended. With the same theory, having 3 soda kegs inline you can have 2 activated carbon and 1 quartz sand for filtration. At the end run it through a large cartridge element unit and I'd think that would clean anything up. In your spirit vessel, you can also run an ozone generator in a box and a aquarium pump in the box running out to a diffuser in the spirit vessel. Just have to be very careful with Ozone and not vent it into living spaces. As it kills things like pets and people if living in the space. So have it run into a vessel for hours and then it shuts off. The next day run spirit through the filtration cans. Probably about the cleanest neutral spirit you can get. I'd love to find a flocculant that would work also but worried it would impart flavors to a neutral spirit.
If you want a simple stainless steel pour through system all you need is some 2" triclamp spool (straight pipe), and a 2" pagoda which is the end cap. Then the triclamps themselves, and PTFE gaskets. I bought all my parts off of aliexpress.com, shipping takes longer, but it is usually much cheaper than buying local.
Would a tap/valve at the bottom of the gravity fed system not allow for control over the flow rate and contact time with the activated carbon? Commercially that is what makes the most sense.
Here is a quick low-down on how its made, I should have put it in the video. They take their source material, coal, wood, coconut shells, they pyrolyze them (heating in the absence of oxygen). Then they take all that charcoal, and they heat again to extremely high temperatures, or they instead use a chemical process, both to to remove all organic matter (anything but carbon) that is left in the charcoal, and it's that removal process that "activates" it. Then they do an acid wash to remove inorganic (minerals, metals, etc...) matter. So realistically, I'd say no simply charing wood doesn't make activated carbon. But technically there probably is a very slight amount of activation going on. Simply charing wood, or even pyrolyzing (heating in absence of oxygen) it to make it charcoal, doesn't "activate" it because that wood is still full of organic compounds. It's the next step, the activation step, that turns it from charcoal to activated carbon which uses adsorption. Charcoal, or charred wood, can filter things, but it's more of a physical process of things getting physically trapped in its cracks and crevices.
Wow, I've looked at many sources about activated carbon and I think you covered it very well and went in depth about it. Love your channel.
I've tried carbon filtering myself but only a gravity fed tube and it takes forever. I just gave up as the initial product didn't need it that much honestly. I wanted to compare and not much difference I found detectable Imo.
Literally the best content I've ever seen on distilling science.
How much neutral that has been diluted to 50% can generally be ran through activated coconut carbon before you need to change it out?
So a 1cu/ft sample of coconut activated carbon can clean X gallons of spirit. Generally. I know, the water makeup can affect it. Just wondering a general amount to be looking at before I should be considering a change.
I've also seen a lot of recommendations on making your cut on spirit before running through carbon. The carbon supposedly reacts better at a lower spirit percentage. Other benefit is it also cleans the cut water.
P.S. for larger stills, using a stainless soda keg with fittings is a easy way to make one. Fill can with activated carbon and one end feeds in the bottom while you allow the finished to flow out the top fitting. Although a large diffuser put on the inlet at the bottom is recommended.
With the same theory, having 3 soda kegs inline you can have 2 activated carbon and 1 quartz sand for filtration. At the end run it through a large cartridge element unit and I'd think that would clean anything up.
In your spirit vessel, you can also run an ozone generator in a box and a aquarium pump in the box running out to a diffuser in the spirit vessel. Just have to be very careful with Ozone and not vent it into living spaces. As it kills things like pets and people if living in the space. So have it run into a vessel for hours and then it shuts off. The next day run spirit through the filtration cans. Probably about the cleanest neutral spirit you can get. I'd love to find a flocculant that would work also but worried it would impart flavors to a neutral spirit.
Thanks man Appreciate the knowledge
Great video thanks mate
I cant remember half of what you just said,, so wow. Good to know which carbon to use though.
Great video! Would you be able to provide the equipment list to build that filter? Also, Where did you get the equipment from? Ebay? Thx.
If you want a simple stainless steel pour through system all you need is some 2" triclamp spool (straight pipe), and a 2" pagoda which is the end cap. Then the triclamps themselves, and PTFE gaskets. I bought all my parts off of aliexpress.com, shipping takes longer, but it is usually much cheaper than buying local.
Would a tap/valve at the bottom of the gravity fed system not allow for control over the flow rate and contact time with the activated carbon? Commercially that is what makes the most sense.
Super video brother, mind if I link it to one of my upcoming videos.
By all means, please do.
@@adamw2785 awesome thank you
@@adamw2785 Are you the creator of this chanel?
When we char wood for ageing, isn't it just creating activated carbon for filtering also?
Here is a quick low-down on how its made, I should have put it in the video. They take their source material, coal, wood, coconut shells, they pyrolyze them (heating in the absence of oxygen). Then they take all that charcoal, and they heat again to extremely high temperatures, or they instead use a chemical process, both to to remove all organic matter (anything but carbon) that is left in the charcoal, and it's that removal process that "activates" it. Then they do an acid wash to remove inorganic (minerals, metals, etc...) matter.
So realistically, I'd say no simply charing wood doesn't make activated carbon. But technically there probably is a very slight amount of activation going on. Simply charing wood, or even pyrolyzing (heating in absence of oxygen) it to make it charcoal, doesn't "activate" it because that wood is still full of organic compounds. It's the next step, the activation step, that turns it from charcoal to activated carbon which uses adsorption.
Charcoal, or charred wood, can filter things, but it's more of a physical process of things getting physically trapped in its cracks and crevices.
@@adamw2785 ok cool, thanks mate. 😊