NZ573513A - Continuous distillation machine comprising a stripping column and a heat exchanger - Google Patents

Abstract

A Continuous Distillation Machine comprises a stripping column and a heat exchanger. The stripping column comprises of four sections 10, 12, 11, 13 one on top of the other, with the first section 10 at the bottom and the fourth section 13 at the top. The first section 10 which is at the lowest end of the column has two separate chambers, a top chamber and a bottom chamber. The bottom chamber connects the disposal outlet of the column's waste reduction to the atmosphere via a breathing elbow on the stripping column's heat exchanger, and the top chamber contains a stainless steel coil which has an opening into the bottom chamber. The coil is surrounded by alcohol containing ferment. Fermented waste passes through the coil and gives up its heat to the surrounding ferment. The alcohol containing ferment is directed into the third section 11. The second section 12 contains packing material that has a high surface area. A heating medium - water and steam is passed through the second section into the third section. Waste is conducted through a coil in the second section 12 to the first section 10. The third section 11 contains plates with holes. Metal tubes pass through the holes and are welded to the plates. The tubes form passages between the bottom and top ends of the third section 11, and are surrounded by boiling ferment from the lower sections. Vapours from the second section 12 travel through the tubes to the fourth packed section 13. The fourth section 13 contains a blind type dephlegmator 2, with an internal coil through which ferment from the heat exchanger 3 flows. Ethanol/water vapours in the dephlegmator 2 gives up heat to the ferment and partially condenses. The heat exchanger 3 comprises five tubular sections forming five main heat exchanging chambers. The two top chambers are an ethanol vapour receiver and an ethanol/ferment heat exchanger. The middle section connects the two halves of the heat exchanger and conducts ethanol to the lower half of the heat exchanger 3. The bottom chamber directs ethanol into a boiler/steam generator 4 and also includes an ethanol trap appendix 17 that is connected to the bottom end of the first section of the stripping column for pressure equalization. ,

Description

Form 5 Patents Act 1953 Complete Specification Apply oni'ne www.iponz.govt.nz online-services *10058807645 Where priority as provided by subsection (2) or subsection (3) of section 11 of the Patents Act 1953 is wanted in respect of one or more provisional specifications, pleas< quote the number(s) below Patent Number(s) Date(s) £73f/3 1 OOj Title of invention: CoY)tfrrudu<> JiXJ-iUalHo?~> YnoLofofn-e.

I (or We) (State full name, address, and nationality of applicant(s) as in application form) Po LI Gir) I YLt U(&'CcA>nC/(r4 f}orf£0 V* ±4 fLotJ^pn Pumajl IVgtJ £.( &U SSI&t*) _ hereby declare the invention, for which I (or we) pray that a patent may be granted to me ty (or us), and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement (On the next page begin full description of invention. The C- continuation of the specification should be upon paper of the same size as this form, on one side fr' only, with the lines well spaced and with a margin of 2.5 cm on the left hand part of the paper. \^- The completion of the description should be followed by the claim or claims numbered consecutively. (See note below.) The specification must be signed at the end) NOTE.-The claims must relate to a single invention, must be clear and succinct, and must be fairly based on the matter disclosed in the specification. They should form in brief a clear statement of that which constitutes the invention. Applicants should be careful that their claims include neither more nor less than they desire to protect by their patent. Any unnecessary multiplicity of claims or prolixity of language should be avoided. Claims should not be made for the efficiency or advantages of the invention.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF N.Z. -2 MAR 2010 RECEIVED Economic i Development For assistance completing this form please call 0508 4 IPONZ (0508 447 669) / RECEIVED atJRQNZ on 13 September 2011 iNTEi^cCT ofp/cf n$ " 13 SEP 2011 RECElVFn Continuous distillation machine The invention relates to ethanol production and purification in general and more particularly to a system combining the apparatus and method of technological process for a small scale of industrial grade or fuel ethanol manufacturing.

Statement While all the world experiencing ever growing demand for fuels and even with implementation of bio fuels we still rely on a big companies that are keep monopoly in the field, and while everyone knows that the ethanol made out of waste is better than gasoline, people still have no chance or ability to use this kind of fuel, moreover there a lot of undeveloped countries where they have got a plentiful of raw material, but no technology to process it to the point where the ethanol could become useful to power the engines of machinery and electric generators, even in Brazil - world's leading ethanol producer the benefits of ethanol are offset by the cost of the ethanol fuel that again controlled by the big fuel companies, and the farmer that grows the sugar cane is buying the fuel from the oil manufacturer only because that the existent ethanol systems for a small scale production of ethanol are too expensive, they are too bulky and require constant attention, most of those systems are based on the batch distillation where one will need constantly reload the system and faced the danger of being badly burned while dealing with a big quantities of boiling ferment, most of those machines will require an expensive molecular membrane to bring the ethanol to the useful level, plus there is an enormous amount of time is lost while reloading such a system, disposing hot waste and waiting for the batch to start boil and ethanol produced, all the listed problems can be solved with the continuous distillation machine that does not needs to be big to deal with big quantities of ferment, that can work 24/7, that gives the spirit out of processed mash after being switched on almost instantly, that disposes the waste constantly to the waste collector while running -the machine that can be switched off any time without affection of the ferment that is technically can be stored tenths of meters away from the distillation machine - so no need of reloading, the machine that equally can be electric or wood or even solar powered -very safe and convenient.

Thus to solve the all listed above problems the Continuous distillation machine was designed and embodied Fig 1. This continuous distillation machine is capable to produce industrial grade ethanol that can be used for fuel purposes continuously 24/7 and the amount of the produced 2 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 ethanol may be limited only by the amount of the raw materials (continuous distillation), the strength of ethanol can vary from 75% Alc/vol to 96% Alc/vol, and controlled manually so one can set the machine to produce any ethanol strength in this range. The continuous distillation machine is a small and light weight machine that can be shifted around by one person, and able to replace a huge batch still. Note: this continuous machine may look similar to the continuous machine from author's previous application No: 555952 but the only similarity is tubular construction and usage of a fractional column and dephlegmators* (*devhle2mator\ Definition from Answers.com dephlegmator (de'fleg'madar) (chemical engineering) An apparatus used in fractional distillation to cool the vapor mixture, thereby condensing.( equally applies to liquefied gases, refrigeration, water, and petroleum distillation*. Author*) www. answers. com/topic/deDhlesmator-chemical-ensineerine) that described in the authors previous application No: 555952 and will not be described or clamed here, though the arrangement of the segments that form the continuous distillation machine fig 1 .that Is claimed in this application. To construct this machine - absolutely different approach was used in construction, where the main focus was to build absolutely stable and efficient system that will share simplicity in construction and where the amount of used metal can be reduced to cut the weight and cost of the system.

A few continuous distillation machines of different sizes were build and embodied, and all of them were tested for long (over lOOhours nonstop) test runs where machines were introduced to real working environment, the continuous distillation machines showed an excellent results as being stable and efficient.

The machine operates as follows; Overview- the continuous distillation machine technically is the set of different heat/mass exchangers that assembled in the certain sequence to conduct the heat/mass exchange process in between the mash, water steam, waste and ethanol to achieve maximum ethanol percentage (possible during distillation (non dried ethanol)) while continuously processing the mash and producing ethanol.

The low percentage ethanol containing mash (any low percentage ethanol solution with water as a result of fermentation) is constantly pumped or gravity fed to the stripping column where the ethanol achieving the higher concentration (30% -65% depending on the source product's ethanol concentration) and constantly separated from the waste that contains traces of yeast, and other solids diluted in water that also getting separated from the ethanol and reduced to the drain, the produced ethanol as being the lightest fraction is rises to the dephlegmator where is getting trapped and partially liquefied reduced via the cooler to the boiler/steam generator that equipped with water separation system (that maintains the positive pressure in the boiler/steam generator reducing separated water out of the system) and ethanol boiler where the ethanol is gaining the high temperature evaporates to the fractional column where gaining its highest percentage and while partially trapped in the dephlegmator reduced via the cooler to the collection vessel.

Detailed description of operation: 3 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 Let say that the continuous distillation machine is being switched on for a time (5-7 minutes) enough to get the mash in the distillation machine boiling and ethanol evaporating, water for cooling and steam generation is supplied to the machine as well; thus we get the mash constantly supplied at the rate that can be manually controlled to the stripping column's heat exchanger's top section fig 1,where the cool mash is contacting with the set of tubes that penetrating the top section of the stripping column's heat exchanger and at the same time conducting hot ethanol and ethanol vapors from the dephlegmator figl, thus the hot ethanol transfers the heat to the mash that surrounding the tubes in the top section of the stripping column's heat exchanger. Further on, after gaining some heat the mash is supplied to the coil that occupies the internal space of the stripping column's dephlegmator figl, and travels through the coil, at the same time the apprising ethanol vapors are getting in contact with the same coil that is cooler than the vapor itself - that causes the ethanol vapor to cool down and condense in the dephlegmator at the same time giving away the heat to the mash that runs through the dephlegmator coil. From the dephlegmator coil the mash continue to travel through the connecting tubing and directed to the lower section of the stripping column to the space that occupied with another coil fig 1, filling the space up and surrounding the coil, at the same time all the separated waste is travels down through the low section's coil that conducts the heat from the waste to the surrounding mash that again gaining in temperature and at this point is reaching a boiling state. The mash now leaving the low section and directed to the bottom of the third section of the stripping column fig 1, this section has an external inlet for the mash and internal outlet that made out of a small holes that are drilled at the top end of the section, the section's internal space is filled with upstanding tubes that penetrating the section and connecting the middle section fig 1, and the fourth section figl, of the stripping column, thus the mash is filling the third section fig 1, and gets in to contact with the tubes that penetrating the section as was mentioned the tubes are connecting the middle figl, and forth section fig 1, thus the middle section is connected with the steam generator fig 1, that supplies the water steam to the middle section fig 1, and to the third section through the upstanding tubes that penetrating the third section supplying the heat to the mash that is in the third section surrounding the upstanding tubes, the mash in the third section is already intensively boiling and evaporates through the holes in the top end of the third section into the internal space of the forth section of the stripping column where is rising in a vapor state through the filling that is packed into the fourth section's internal space, as a result the water and spirit vapor are introduced to the big surface area of the filling material that causes the only lightest vapor to reach the dephlegmator, at the same time the condensed vapors inside the forth section figl, that did not reached the dephlegmator and also liquid mash that already released most of ethanol vapor is gravity, forced down the column through the upstanding tubes of the third section fig 1, of the stripping column down to the internal space of the middle section that is filled with high surface area materials, thus the steam is constantly supplied to the middle section that is packed with packing material and the heavy fractions that include the water, yeast traces and also some ethanol are flowing from the top of the column and as a result the steam transfer the heat to the packing material and liquefied waste that still contain some ethanol, thus forcing the liquefied water and ethanol to evaporate again and again, also to upraise through the third's section's upstanding tubing supplying the heat to the internals of the third section and also getting in contact with the liquid fractions that flowing down the tubes also forcing the remaining ethanol to evaporate, at the same time the empty mash that no longer contains any ethanol is penetrating down the middle section through the packing, getting charged with the constant steam blast and travels further down the low section's coil fig 1, to the drain at the same time 4 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 exchanging the heat with constantly supplied from the dephlegmator coil mash that is supplied to the third section fig 1.

The mix of ethanol and water vapor that reached the top of the column gets into contact with the dephlegmator coil (the fourth section fig 1) looses the temperature and in the liquid state escapes the column via the stripping column's heat exchanger fig 1, the heat exchanger is made out of two separate sections - the top and the bottom one, the top section is the first section where the cool mash is fed into the continuous distillation machine the lower section is the last section where the cooling water passes through the distillation machine but both sections have a upstanding tubes that are corresponding with each other, thus the ethanol and water vapor travel down the stripping column's heat exchanger and exchanges the heat with the incoming mash that is surrounds the upstanding tubes in the top section of the heat exchanger, then ethanol/water mix travels further down and enters the low section of the heat exchanger that at the same time is filled with flowing water that surrounds the upstanding tubes in the low section of the stripping column's heat exchanger, the ethanol/water mix is exchanges the heat with the water that surrounds the upstanding tubes in the low section heat exchanger and flows further to the top section of the steam generator/boiler fig 1.

The steam generator boiler figl is made out of two sections that are separated from each other and while the bottom section is generating the steam to feed the stripping column, the top section is utilizing the heat of generated steam and some heat that otherwise could be lost due to heat radiation to the surrounding environment. The top section of the steam generator/boiler is designed to get the constantly supplied ethanol/water mix back to the boiling point - forcing the vapor to upraise the fractional column fig 1, and also be capable to collect separated from ethanol water and while maintaining the certain water level in the outer chamber of the boiler to release constantly incoming water out the distillation machine. The ethanol/water mix is supplied in the middle - cap like chamber of the boiler that is prolonged deep into the internal space of the steam generator boiler fig 1, (for greater surface contact and efficiency) once the liquefied ethanol/water mix is get into the middle chamber and suddenly exposed to the high temperature it is causes the mix to evaporate and as soon the mix (ethanol/water) is azeotropic liquid then the actual temperature of boiling will be no greater than 78.2 degrees Celsius so the vapor is directed to the top of fractional column that has a manually controlled valve that controls a reflux ratio so the certain portion of liquefied ethanol constantly flows down the fractional column forcing the upraising ethanol vapor to condense and evaporate again and again many times making it possible to reach the top of the column for highest fraction only - in this case 95-96% ethanol. At the same time the heavy fraction that is water is constantly condenses and gravity forced to the bottom of the column - along the boiler walls to the outer water collection chamber and because intensively evaporating ethanol creates some kind of refrigeration effect the temperature in the boiler is constantly maintained below the temperature of water boiling. Thus the separated water get collected in the outer chamber of the boiler and also acts as some kind of lock to prevent the ethanol vapor to escape the boiler via the water passage, also to maintain the positive pressure in the boiler the water trap fig, fig 1, system is introduced. This system is connected to the boiler outer chamber and while maintaining the same level of water in the chamber and the trap, the water trap maintaining the resistance to the vapors greater than the pressure in the entire distillation machine thus the only way for the vapors to escape is the fractional column's dephlegmator - the water trap has a bigger capacity and connected to the outer chamber of the RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 boiler via the tube that almost reaches the bottom of the trap (that creates resistance equal to the displacement of the amount of liquid in the volume) that is filled with water but has a water reduction passage at the point of desired level to constantly reduce an extra water to drain and also prevent the water to overfill the boiler and get to the middle cap of the boiler (the law of corresponding vessels, plus to prevent siphoning the air passage also introduced). As soon as the travel through the fractional column is the way of lower resistance the ethanol/water mixture is penetrates to the fractional column where the water and ethanol getting separated and ethanol reduced trough the fractional column's heat exchanger and collected for further use, and water reduced via the water trap system to the drain or reused as a cooling and steam generating agent for further use in the column. The continuous distillation machine is using the water to supply entire system with steam and coolant, thus the water is supplied to the machine by means of pump or gravity and takes two different passages - one passage direct water to the steam generator for steam production and heat supply to the entire system, the second passage is directed trough the set of coil and heat exchangers to cool down the ethanol vapor where it is needed. So the water flows to the water distributor system fig 1, that is equipped with a floating ball valve and connected with the steam generators via the passages and the same level of water is maintained in the steam generators fig 1, and the water distributor fig 1, (corresponding vessels) the steam generators, are convert the water into the steam phase and direct the steam into the middle section figl, of the stripping column where the water steam gets into contact with flowing down mash and forces the remains of ethanol to evaporate and upraise along with the water steam up to the third section fig 1. Trough the upstanding vertical tubes where the steam exchanges the heat with the mash that surrounds the upstanding tubes inside of the third section Fig 1, At the same time the water that flows through the cooling passage is first directed into the coil that is occupies the internal space of the water trap fig 1, is reducing the temperature of the separated from ethanol water and prevents the discarded water from steaming, then cooling water is travels through the connecting pipe and penetrates the fractional column's heat exchanger fig 1, where filling up the internal space of the heat exchanger fig 1, and surrounds the tubes inside of which the ethanol flowing down and as a result of heat exchange cools down completely.

Thus the water continue to travel through the connecting pipe and penetrates the low chamber of the stripping column's heat exchanger fig 1, where surrounds the tubes that are used for ethanol conduction and during the heat exchange forces the ethanol/water mix to condense completely before ethanol/water mix enters the top section of the steam generator/boiler fig 1, then cooling water escapes the low section of the heat exchanger fig 1, and discarded to the drain or collected again and reused in the system.

Description of construction of the continuous distillation 6 machine.

RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 As been mentioned before - the continuous distillation machine is consist of separate section that attached to each other (ether welding or unions and flanges) thus for simplicity of explanation the construction of the machine will be described in the actual sequence of every segment construction.

The low section construction: the low section fig 1, is the bottom section of the continuous machine, and has two separate chambers, the bottom chamber (is connected to the stripping column's heat exchanger's fig 1 ethanol trap appendix for pressure reduction in the waste release pipe) and the top chamber the body of the section is made out of length of stainless steel tube, with two metal flat pieces with a single hole drilled on each piece to accommodate the ends of the coil, the section is drilled on its side at top and bottom end to accommodate two 90 degrees elbows that welded to the drilled holes, the stainless steel coil is inserted into the section and two drilled flat pieces are get welded onto the section of tube so to let the ends of the coil to be aligned with the drilled holes on the flat pieces of meal, the coil's ends are also get welded, the small section of the same diameter tube is welded to the bottom of construction and a flat round metal piece with a short tube (waste release) is welded to the bottom of construction - forming a bottom chamber, at the side of the bottom chamber the 90 degrees elbow is welded to the drilled previously hole and points up to the stripping column's heat exchanger's fig 1 ethanol trap appendix.

The next segment of the stripping column fig 1, is the middle section that mounted on top of the low section fig 1, the construction of this section is simple : the section is the length of the metal tube that has a tube inserted at the side of the section into the tube protruding the tube's wall fig 1, the tube is welded to ensure the hermitical connection with the tube's wall the sticking out tube is the steam passage that directs the steam from steam generator/boiler fig 1 into the distillation machine, the entire space of the middle section is filled with high surface area packing material.

The next segment of the stripping column fig 1, is the third section, the section is mounted on top of middle section and mash passage is aligned with the corresponding passage of the low section fig 1, the third section fig 1 is made out of length of metal tube the tube has three drillings - two drillings: one at the bottom and another at the top side of the tube and located on the same axis, this holes are accommodating two 90 degrees elbows that point at each other and later connected with clear plastic tube for the mash level observation, the third single hole is drilled at the bottom of the tube and located at the diametrically opposite place from the axis where the two elbows are located, thus the third elbow is welded to the single hole and points down to the top elbow of the low section fig 1 of the continuous distillation machine, the sections are connected with plastic or metal tube for mash conducting. The top and bottom ends of the third section are plugged with two round metal plates that welded to the top and bottom of the section forming the internal chamber each plate has a number of corresponding holes and metal tubes are inserted into the holes ad hermetically welded to the plates penetrating and filling the internal space of the section also forming passages that connect the bottom and the top ends of the third section, at the top end of the third section there are number of holes drilled in the top plate forming passages for the boiling mash and stem that will penetrate the holes and enter the bottom of the fourth section fig 1. The fourth section is getting aligned with stripping column's heat exchanger fig 1, and low section of the stripping column fig 1. 7 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 The next section that gets mounted on top of the third section is the short packed column equipped with the blind type dephlegmator figl, (described in the authors previous application No: 555952 and details of construction will not be described here.

Stripping column's heat exchanger fig 1, is the last component of the stripping column fig 1, the heat exchanger is made out of five tubular sections that forming two main heat exchanging chambers and three small chambers that used for main chambers' interconnection and ethanol collection and redirection. The heat exchanger fig 1 can also include the ethanol trap appendix (used for big format stripping columns). The both tubular sections are plugged with flat metal plates and each plate has a corresponding drillings for installation of upstanding metal tubes that each welded to the metal plates and penetrating each section, thus sections' internal spaces are separated from each other and forming separate chambers - the bottom chamber has two drillings on its side at the low and top ends and two tubes for cooling water are welded to the drillings the top chamber has also two drillings at the top and bottom opposite from each other and two tubes are also welded in and this tubes are used for mash inlet and outlet. On the top of the construction the small cap like structure is welded to the heat exchanger fig 1, with two tubes welded to the previously drilled holes that connected to the ethanol passages of the fourth section fig 1. At the bottom of the construction there is another cap like structure get welded to the heat exchanger fig 1, the middle of the bottom of this cap is drilled and the ethanol reduction tube is welded to the cap, at the side of the cap is another hole is drilled and elbow is welded fig 1, this elbow is connects to the bottom elbow of the stripping column fig 1. for equalization of internal pressure inside the stripping column, equally this connection may be carried via the ethanol trap appendix that prevents the ethanol from escaping into the drain while maintaining the column pressure equalization, the trap appendix is an upstanding hollow chamber that made out of section of a metal tube and has bottom connection with the low elbow of the stripping column's heat exchanger fig 1. It has its top end blind plugged with metal flat plug that welded to the trap and also has an elbow that's pointing down to the bottom elbow of the low section fig 1.

Steam generator/boiler fig 1, is the next part of the continuous distillation machine where the ethanol is secondary boiled and directed to the fractional column fig 1. Steam generator/boiler is made of two main parts - one is actual steam generator - that produces the water steam for the entire system and another part - the top part of the construction is the actual boiler that utilizes liquefied low percentage ethanol that supplied by stripping column, and forces this spirit to evaporate again by providing direct heating to the liquid, plus the boilers' construction allows to evaporated spirit to enter directly to the fractional column that attached on top of the boiler, plus the boiler has double walled construction that makes it possible to separate and collect heavy fractions separately from the spirit that constantly supplied and getting evaporated, and release the waste that separated from the spirit on the continuous basis. The main body of the steam generator/boiler is made out of the length of the bigger diameter tube, at the bottom there is the length of the smaller diameter tube is welded via the washer like flat metal plate the outer edges of the washer is welded to the bigger diameter tube and the inner edge is welded to the end of the smaller diameter tube, thus the smaller diameter tube is an extension of the bigger diameter tube, at the bottom end of the steam generator's smaller diameter extension the heating element's connector (boss) is welded, at the top end of the bigger diameter tube another similar washer like 8 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 metal plate is welded - like the bottom one the outer edge of the plate is welded to the end of the bigger diameter tube , then into the opening that is formed by the metal plate at the top the metal cylinder with the blind end is inserted and also welded to the inner edges of the washer-like metal plate , thus top of construction is forming the sort of vessel for the liquid collection. Then the cup-like structure with the conical top and the hole on top for the fractional column mounting is placed over the top of the top end of the steam generator. The size of the cup is slightly bigger than the diameter of the. main bigger diameter tube so the gap in-between the top cup and the outer walls of the bigger tube's top is formed, the bottom of the cup is getting welded to the outer body of the bigger tube via the washer-like spacer the same as the smaller tubes were connected to the bigger tube. The top cup has two elbows that connected to the wall of the Cup and located on the same axis pointing at each other, then interconnected with a transparent plastic tube for water level observing, at the opposite side at the bottom level there is a passage that connected to the water trap system fig 1. On the slope of the cup there is the tube that is the passage for ethanol/water mix supply to the boiler, the passage is the tube that protruding the wall of the cap and will be connected to the bottom tube of the stripping column's heat exchanger Fig 1. On the side wall of the bigger diameter tube there are two drillings on the same axis at the top and bottom of the tube the top drilling is bigger and accommodates the passage that leads to water separator that cuts the water from the steam, the separator made out of tubular section that has a metal plug welded on top of the section and passages on each side opposing each other one to be welded to the top drilling of the bigger diameter tube and another will be connected to the steam passage on the middle section of the stripping column fig 1. The bottom end of separator has a metal tube pointing down to the elbow that is welded to the bottom drilling and pointing up, the separator to be connected to the elbow with plastic transparent tube for water level observing and separated water conduction back into the steam generator/boiler fig 1, at the bottom of the steam generator and above the heating element connection there is another drilling - this drilling is accommodates the water lock water supply passage, the water lock is the section of tube that has top and bottom ends plugged blind and also two drillings one at the top and another at the bottom the bottom drilling has a tube welded to it that is a connection to the bottom connection of the water distributor fig 1, the top drilling has a tube welded to it and this tube is bent so to connect the top of the water lock with the bottom drilling of the steam generator boiler, all construction is solid welded. On the side of the bigger tube there are two tubular passages leading inside the steam generator and located at the top and the bottom of the bigger tube fig 1, these tubes are connecting the steam generator/boiler with an additional boosting steam generator fig 1. The additional boosting steam generator is providing an extra steam generation for distillation process acceleration and also has an option to be connected into the independent power supply to prevent the electric power point from overloading.

The construction of the booster steam generator fig 1, is simple the steam generator is made out the length of the metal tube that is plugged blind on top end - at the bottom end there is a heating element mounting (the construction of the heating element mounting (boss) is depends on the type and construction of the heating element), on the side of the steam generator fig 1, there are two tubes that welded to the previously drilled holes the tubes are located on the top and bottom ends of the steam generator on the same axis, the tubes are connected with the corresponding tubes on the steam generator/boiler figl. Thus both steam generators are share the same water for steam generation and heat production for ethanol evaporation and directing into the fractional column fig 1, where the ethanol/water mix is getting separated and ethanol is forced to evaporate 9 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 and condense many times by means of dephlegmation as a result the only lightest fractions are reaching the fractional columns dephlegmator fig 1, the construction of the fractional column and dephlegmator described in the authors previous application No: 555952 and will not be described or clamed here, though the arrangement of the segments that form the continuous distillation machine fig 1. is claimed in this application. When the ethanol vapor is reaches the dephlegmator the ethanol getting completely condensed and partially directed back to the fractional column fig 1, and partially directed to the fractional column's heat exchanger fig 1 where cools down completely and finally getting collected for further usage, thus the fractional column's heat exchanger fig 1, consist out of three chambers where one main big chamber and two small chambers one on top and another at the bottom end of the heat exchanger fig 1, the main chamber of the heat exchanger fig 1, is made out of section of metal tube, there two metal plates are welded to the either end of the main chamber each plate has a holes drilled to accommodate the straight metal tubes the tubes are inserted into the corresponding holes and welded on the side of the outer wall of the main chamber on the same axis there are two tubular passages are welded fig 1, and the low passage is connected to the "water out" passage on top of the water trap system fig 1. And the top passage connects to the low end of the fractional column's dephlegmator coil fig 1. On the top end of the main chamber of the fractional column's heat exchanger fig 1 the cup like metal construction is mounted and welded. The top of the cup has two tubular passages that connect the heat exchanger to the fractional column's dephlegmator fig 1. via the manually controlled valve and air breathing passage fig 1. The low chamber is the cup like metal structure with the tubular passage for ethanol escape in center of the bottom end of the cup fig 1. At the side of the low chamber there is a passage with the metal elbow pointing up, the elbow located just under the welding joint where the cup getting welded to the main chamber, the purpose of this passage is to equalize pressure in the continuous distillation machine fig 1, and avoid any internal pressure build up in event of the ethanol collecting tube fig 1 gets submerged in the liquid. The design of the heat exchanger fig 1 allows the spirit to flow freely down the upstanding tubes without the pressure build up, at the same time the water flows around the tubes and exchanges the heat with ethanol completely cooling it down, the water is supplied via the water passage previously cooling down the waste water in the water trap system fig 1. The main purpose of the water trap system is to maintain pressure in the boiler higher than the pressure at the top of the fractional column, and make it possible to force the spirit vapors to escape the column via the dephlegmator at the same time all heavy liquefied fractions (water) :s collected and constantly disposed without entire column spirit production affection. The trap is connected directly to the boiler part of the steam generator/boiler and disposal elbow of the water trap is located on the same line with the working liquid level of the boiler, (boiler needs that all fractions were presented for the proper fraction separation and effective heat/mass exchange process) and as soon as the level of water is increases in the boiler, the unwanted amount of liquid will be disposed from the water trap without affection of the internal pressure in the boiler and always maintaining similar liquid level required for the entire system work. The water trap fig 1 is made out of a length of metal tube that has the metal coil occupying the internal space of the tube, there is also a metal elbow is inserted into the tube and runs inside from the middle of the tube almost down to the bottom fig 1 - this passage is connected to the corresponding water release passage on the steam generator/boiler figl, at the opposite side on the wall of the water trap there is a water release elbow welded Fig 1. The water release elbow points down and located at the level that required for proper distillation machine work and as soon as water level gets higher the water penetrates the passage and escapes the continuous distillation machine. The RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 top and bottom of the water trap are plugged with the metal plates that welded to the tube forming the water trap fig 1 the top plate has two openings drilled - one opening is accommodating the tubular elbow for internal pressure equalizing and siphoning effect prevention, the second opening is aligned with the internal coil top end that is connected to the fractional column's heat exchanger's low elbow fig 1. The bottom plate has two holes drilled as well one hole has a ball.valve connector welded and a ball valve installed fig 1, the ball valve is used for water draining out of system, the second hole is accommodates the low end of the internal coil fig 1, and this end is connected to the primary water supply. As been mentioned before there are two separate water streams in the continuous distillation machine: one is for cooling and another is for steam generation thus to supply the water to the steam generators and maintain the desired level of water in the entire system - the water distributor fig 1 is used, to build the water distributor two metal tubes were used one tube is left in the state of the metal cylinder and another is cut in two halves along the tube to form the trough with one end accommodating the metal washer - like plate, the other end is welded to the cylindrical tube at 90 degrees angle, the cylindrical tube has one end open and another is plugged with the metal plate that has a n elbow water passage welded to the bottom of the construction and connected to the steam generator/boiler water lock fig 1, the cylindrical tube is accommodating the floating ball that inserted into the cylinder through the top open end of the cylinder part of the water distributor figlthe floating ball has a flexible joint that connects the ball with the lever that opens and closes the water valve that mounted to the washer-like metal plate on the end of the trough, the ball is floating up and down along the cylinder and keeps the valve dependant on the level in the steam generator and water distributor, thus if water in the steam generator drops the ball will travel down the cylinder and release the water valve via the lever that connects the floating ball and the water valve, the valve is become open and lets the water to penetrate the valve and get into the cylinder of the water distributor fig 1 thus the water distributor and steam generator are corresponding vessels the level in the both vessels will aim to be equal, so the level in the steam generator is always kept the same regardless of constantly evaporating water. 11 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 An explanatory list of assembly key components numbered on Fig 1: The components numbered on fig 1: 1. Stripping column 2. Stripping column's dephlegmator 3. Stripping column's cooler (heat exchanger) 4. Boiler/steam generator . Ethanol boiler 6. Fractional column 7. Fractional column's dephlegmator 8. Fractional column's cooler (heat exchanger) 9. Top section of stripping column . Lower section 11. Third section 12. Middle section 13. Fourth section 14. Steam generator . Water trap 16. Water distributor 17. Ethanol trap 18. Water lock 19. Boosting steam generator 12 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011

Claims (2)

Claims. I claim:

1. A Continuous Distillation Machine structure comprising of the elements said: stripping column, comprising a low section with, two separate chambers, separated from each other the bottom chamber that connects the disposal outlet of the column's waste reduction with atmosphere via a breathing elbow on a stripping column's heat exchanger and the top chamber a stainless steel coil of which has an opening into a low chamber for waste ferment conduction, that is inserted into the section, and exchanges the heat of waste with surrounding ferment that contains ethanol, that further directed into a third section, that mounted on top of a middle section, the middle section, that filled with high surface area packing material that receives a heating medium - water steam and direct the steam and vapors through the third section on top and conducts a waste through the low section at the bottom via a low section's coil, the third section that is mounted on top of middle section and packed with a number of metal tubes that are inserted into the holes and hermetically welded to the plates penetrating and filling an internal space of the section also forming passages that connect the bottom and the top ends of the third section where the vapors are travel through the internals of the tubes that at the same time surrounded with boiling ferment that supplied from the low section, where the vapors that formed inside the third section are raising through a drillings at the top end of the third section and penetrating a fourth section that mounted on top of the third section of the stripping column, where the vapors from the second section are also rising from the middle section through the tubes of the third section into the fourth packed section equipped with a blind type dephlegmator where ethanol/water vapor getting partially condensed by exchanging heat with an internal coil of the dephlegmator through which a ferment flowing from a stripping column's heat exchanger, where condensed and vaporized ethanol is directed from the stripping column's dephlegmator, into the heat exchanger that comprising of five tubular sections forming two main heat exchanging chambers where two top chambers are an ethanol vapor receiver and an ethanol/ferment heat exchanger, middle chamber is connects two halves top and bottom of the heat exchanger and conducts ethanol to the tubular internals of the low halve of the heat exchanger, the bottom chamber is directs ethanol into a boiler/steam generator and also include an ethanol trap appendix that connected to the bottom end of the low section for the stripping column's pressure equalization.

2. A Continuous distillation machine accordingly to the claim 1. the steam generator/boiler, where the ethanol is secondary boiled and directed to a fractional column, the steam generator/boiler is comprising two main parts - one is actual steam generator - that produces a water steam and heat supply for the entire distillation machine, and another part is a top part of the construction is actual boiler that utilizes liquefied low percentage spirit that supplied by the stripping column, and evaporates this spirit again by providing direct heating to the liquid, where the evaporated spirit is entering directly to the fractional column that attached on top of the boiler this system also include dephlegmator and the fractional column's heat exchanger where ethanol from fractional column's dephlegmator is cools down, and collected the steam generator/boiler with the double walled construction that separates and collect heavy fractions separately from the spirit 13 RECEIVED at IPONZ on 13 September 2011 that constantly supplied from stripping column, and release the waste that separated from the spirit on the continuous basis, through the water trap system the water trap system, that maintains pressure in the boiler higher than the pressure at the top of the fractional column, and forces the spirit vapors to escape the column via the fractional column's dephlegmator at the same time a heavy liquefied fraction (water) is collected and constantly disposed through a water trap comprising a metal tubular section that has an internal metal coil occupying an internal space of the tubular section where a cooling agent (water) is floating through a coil and cools down separated fraction (water) from the boiler, a metal elbow that inserted into the tube and runs inside from the middle of the tube down to the bottom connecting boiler and the water trap, a water distributor that keeps desired water level and supply into the steam generator and cooling circuit of the Continuous Distillation Machine, comprising a metal cylinder and a trough with one end accommodating a metal plate, the other end is welded to the cylindrical tubular section ut 90 degrees angle, where the cylindrical tube is accommodating a floating ball that inserted into the cylinder through the top open end of the cylinder part of the water distributor, with the floating ball that has a flexible joint that connects the ball with a lever that opens and closes a water blocking valve that mounted to the metal plate on the end of the trough, where the cylindrical section has one end open and another is plugged with the metal plate that has a water passage attached to the bottom of the distributor and connected to the steam generator/boiler's water lock, that conducting water into the steam generator and prevents thermal fluctuations within the steam generator. 14 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF N.Z. • 13 SEP 2011 received