Countercurrent cooling and controlled dephlegmator
Distillers with a dephlegmator are mainly used for alcohol distillation. If units equipped with a dephlegmator are also to be used for water vapour distillation, the dephlegmator remains switched off.
In these systems, both booster columns and, in order to regulate the distillate extraction/reflux ratio, an adjustable dephlegmator in the stainless steel helmet are used for rectification. The advantage over a pure column system, which tends to have static parameters, is the controllability of flow and reflux, which makes the distillation process more dynamic. Every distiller can determine the optimum operating conditions for their system. Only basic recommendations for operation are given here. Settings can be made for the upstream and downstream separation to suit the task in hand. For fans of classic pot still distillation, the dephlegmator can also simply be switched off. The actual dephlegmator operation is generally required for the double distillation process for fine distillation, as this is where the separation of the pre- and post-distillation takes place. For rough distillation, the dephlegmator can either remain switched off or be operated hot throughout the entire process, so that a higher alcohol concentration is already achieved in the distillate.
