# Evaporation v Boiling



## Digitaria (Mar 24, 2014)

On reading a few posts about the necessity to evaporate slowly, not fast bubble, boil, to reduce solutions - Well, sometime ago, I became familiar with solar distillation, I was thinking that it could be used to evaporate ar. It would mean pouring the ar into the reservoir and leaving the solution in the sun all day, but there would be no need to watch over the batch, or fear it boiling, it could even be adapted to scrub fumes in the usual way...

I also read something about harmful salts in nitric acid, in a similar way, this device Or at least one adapted for purpose would effectively evaporate the nitric, and through simple solar distillation provide a pure saltless acid. 

If you think this is suitable it could be of real benefit - just fill and come back at the end of the day, instead of clock watching, and I know there are many people on here capable of adapting this design, so I wondered whether it might be possible to come up with something useful as part of the refining process. There are lots of pics, which could help with production, and it would work equally well in glass and with the addition of grooves, like a particular desert beetle, has utilised for it's survival.

What do you think, could it be helpful?

http://www.watercone.com/product.html
http://www.dwc-water.com/technologies/desalination/simple-stills/index.html
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:119674


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## necromancer (Mar 24, 2014)

imho, no

you would be better off setting your beaker on a mirror & letting it evaporate


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## Digitaria (Mar 24, 2014)

Mmmm - I could imagine a fresnel lens working, but that would be from above, but setting the vessel on a mirror, I can't imagine that would work?


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## necromancer (Mar 24, 2014)

fresnel lens would work but hard to control the heat


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## necromancer (Mar 24, 2014)

how about a teflon coated aluminum pan in the sun ?
or a hot plate with a sand bed ?

lots of choices,


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## pgms4me (Mar 24, 2014)

There are many plans for solar ovens that would work well. If you want to get fancy you can control the heat with a thermostat shading device..fresnel lens is best suited for melting butttons, they even melt platinum in a crucible easily--be careful because they can burn through crucibles if not focused right,especially large ones from big screen tv's


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## niteliteone (Mar 25, 2014)

The evaporation with the sun also would kill any excess nitric acid in solutions as the sun light actually destroys the nitrates in the nitric acid.
I use this method anytime I might have excess nitric in solution.

The cone in the links would slow the overall process as it would stop the airflow that removes the humidity from the top of the solution.


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## Digitaria (Mar 25, 2014)

The cone does not rely on air flow to remove moisture, it moves the moisture, lifting it up as vapour and depositing it as a condensate in the reservoir in the upper cones collector, it would ensure that any nitric used, would be collected here as a slightly weaker acid, so no waste. The cone is basically a distillation unit, evaporation of the moisture in the central reservoir will be evaporated leaving only dessicated salts, if present.


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## necromancer (Mar 25, 2014)

it's plastic, it may not stand up to the acid.


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## rickbb (Mar 25, 2014)

With a solar device wouldn't you always have to keep turning it to the sun? 

And you could only work during the daytime, no night work.

It seems it would also work much slower, evaporation is already slow enough, for me anyway.


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## pgms4me (Mar 25, 2014)

rickbb said:


> With a solar device wouldn't you always have to keep turning it to the sun?
> 
> And you could only work during the daytime, no night work.
> 
> It seems it would also work much slower, evaporation is already slow enough, for me anyway.



There are solar oven designs that are wide angle and can catch a good amount of the rays for a couple hours without turning. i have used them to boil 3gallons of water and even cook a turkey!


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