Reflux vessel, Orion #10

The reflux vessel is recycled from spiral welded pipe. It has approx. 3mm wall and the endcaps are 10 & 6.5mm. A short three inch diameter length of pipe connects the retort to reflux.
The top blanking plate will seal directly on the pipe using solid copper gasket, secured by 8 x 10mm bolts. Temperature monitoring will be a thermocouple probe sealed by copper washer.

Reflux vessel to be finished was recycled from an old refrigeration compressor tank. The top plate is to be removable for optional filling with catalyst. The thermocouple is the item on the upper left side. The bung hole at the lower left may be adapted for continuous oil feed.

The pic was taken just after the top plate fasteners were welded. Vessel dimensions: 155mm x 550mm. Connecting pipe to retort is 65mm I.D. Running away from the reflux is 40mm I.D. Retort to reflux length: 165mm

19Aug2013 To help with maintenance I made a platform to make it easier to fit and remove the reflux tower.

23Aug2013 An old Orion oven temperature gauge was mounted to the reflux upper end. It's in Fahrenheit I believe so I will mark the target temperature in 'C for casual monitoring.
1April2014 I haven't remarked the gauge but the sweet spot is when the needle points to "Orion" so this is the target temperature. Also I have a LCD TC to show exact figure.

 

5Dec2013 The reflux was removed for inspection and cleaning of the retort. Everything looked in good order. There was some carbon build up on the floor of the retort only. It required modest chipping off, the texture being like biscuit. The lids' taper seal and the copper reflux hatch gasket were working well. The entire reflux swarf contents was removed and discarded in preparation for the next run.

21Dec2013 New lagging for the reflux recycled from an industrial boiler. I think it's rockwool and had wire mesh attached when it arrived. It seems to hold up better than the kaowool.

17Jul2014 1.5m, mineral insulated thermocouple, stainless sheath, k type, part 242-0286. Update: am having problems with this TC so will be testing its' fitness.

 

15April2015 Reflux simple stainless packing, sieve trays. There are four layers like this stacked in succession.. All are free draining. The object is to increase the interface between rising vapor and falling condensate.

More details soon.