Laboratory oil separator set for all hobby stills – for separating the oil after distillation
A few tips before you start.
This set is suitable for easily separating the essential oil from the hydrosol after distillation. In addition to this set, it's best to have clean bottles ready for the final bottling. I use wine bottles with corks for the maturing period or flip-top bottles for final storage. No matter what, the main thing is that the bottles are light-protected. I simply cleaned the bottles with washing-up liquid and carefully rinsed them. In my experience, sterilising the bottles, as recommended in many sources, is not necessary. Light is the only enemy. If you plan to store the hydrosol in the Erlenmeyer flasks for several days, they should first be closed with stoppers rolled out of kitchen paper and stored in a dark place. After about a week, the hydrosol should be transferred to the coloured bottles for storage, or the paper stoppers should be dipped in stoppers 8.1 or 9.1. When storing in wine bottles, the cork can be used to seal the bottle. Over time, the cork will cause the hydrosol to mature, which will take no longer than three months. However, only hydrosols with a pH of ≤ 5 can be stored for longer periods. My oldest acidic hydrosols are now 4 years old and in very good condition. I stored them in the cellar at average temperatures below 18 °C. But even occasional temperatures of 22 °C did not harm these hydrolates. I also have hydrolates with 5.5 ≥ pH ≤ 6, which showed sensory signs of old varnish after one year, without completely turning over. However, you don't really want these hydrolates. In practice, the hydrolates are usually not stored for so long; for me, the goal was the long-term experiment.
Distillation
This set is very flexible and can be used for stills with a high distillate outlet and also when the outlet is low and a setup as shown above is not possible.
In the first case, use the Erlenmeyer flask as a receiver and collect 500 ml as the first batch. For stills with a high distillate outlet, you can also use the oil separator directly as a template, as shown above, and gradually drain the hydrolate into the Erlenmeyer flask. Depending on the still, the extraction takes 8 to 15 minutes. You can assume that the oil is included in this margin.
You can arrange to replace the Erlenmeyer flask for the second batch without interrupting the distillation. At the latest, you should hold a pH strip in the distillation jet in the middle of the second batch. You can use this value to decide whether a further batch is useful. If the pH value is below approx. 4.5, you can consider a further distillation run. For this, the distillation must be interrupted in the 2-litre hobby systems as a precaution in order to top up the water in the boiler. However, this is not a problem because no more oil can be lost. The distillation continues where you left off.
In my experience, in the vast majority of cases, the distillation was complete after removing two portions. I found one of the exceptions with fennel seeds.
