I’ve saved some lab ware and equipment from the dumpster. I wonder if I can use some of it to make a distillation setup for essential oils.
Some things I want to try extracting oil from:
- Banana peel
- Mandarine peel
- Ginger
- Cherry tree petals
- Rhododendron petals
- Monarda didyma
- Mentha aquatica
- Pine/fir/spruce needles
- Green walnut peel
I could start with putting the material straight into my 500mL round bottom flask, which is incidentally the largest still size I can use legally. However it would only fit about 250mL, so adding a biomass chamber with it would be very nice. It would be great if I could somehow use my ~1.8L reactor, it is the perfect shape, however it is missing a lid. I think my jacketed chromatography column could make a decent condenser. However none of them have matching glass fittings..
Thinking of buying a oil/hydrosol separator, or a Clevenger apparatus, to separate and reintroduce the hydrosol to the boiling flask.
Lots of things to figure out still.