Alcohol Distillation and Its Impact on Aging

Alcohol Distillation

Distillation has been around for centuries. Civilizations across the globe have utilized this process of distilling liquor to craft different varieties. Materials for spirits production depend on what final spirit you want: whisky is typically made using fermented grains while gin and vodka may utilize fruit- or grain-based alcohol as sources.

A still is heated to vaporize and strip volatile molecules out of wash, then the resulting vapor flows upward through plates that provide surfaces for condensation and drip down to collect into product as it travels down through columns. At the top, molecules with higher alcohol concentration than when in liquid state arrive at the top (as illustrated below by their concentration gradient in liquid and vapor states), as controlled by their reflux ratio which impacts both purity and energy requirements for distillation.

As soon as the vapor reaches the top of the column, it is cooled by cooling coils and converted into alcohol product that flows into a condenser for collection. Roughly two thirds to three quarters of all alcohol vapor is returned back into the rectifying section as “reflux”, providing another source of high alcohol vapor content.

Planning any fuel alcohol plant, from an individual farm unit or small cooperative project up to large community or industrial sized facilities, requires considering both long and short-term availability and prices of alternative heating fuels for heating and distilling equipment. Utilizing alcohol itself will only waste one unit of high quality liquid fuel while saving one unit of other types; rendering that particular unit unavailable to replace imported or domestic oil supplies.