Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender Essential Oil using a 40 L Rotating Column and Essencier

Distillation of Essential Oils

Using Your Rotating Column to Distil Essential Oils     

Distilling Lavender and Lavandin flowers in a Rotating Column Copper Alembic Distiller is fun and it's easy.

 Lavender and Lavandin flowers are cut with short stalks to enable you to distil more flowers.

1. The Alembic pot is filled at least half way with water.
2. With the rotating column in the up position, the column is packed tightly with flowers. Flowers can also be placed into the pot with the water if you desire to increase your capacity.
3. Flowers are packed tightly into the Alembic Head.
4. The distiller is now put together. Alembic Head on top of the Rotating Column. The Bird's Beak from the Alembic Head is attached to the condenser.
5. Traditional Copper Alembic Distillers have no gaskets. In order to seal the distiller from steam leaks, the traditional method is employed. Rye flour is made into dough. The dough is pushed into all of the copper joints. This is a very simple and effective method to seal against steam leaks. If a leak should occur, simply add more dough to the leaking area. There is a joint where the rotating column attaches to the Alembic pot. Another where the lid sits on top of the rotating column. Finally the piping to the condenser is sealed.
6. The heat source is turned on. Below we are using propane to heat the water in the Alembic Distiller.
7. After a while, the water in the pot will begin to boil. It takes time for the steam to transfer heat to the flowers and release the essential oils. After a while the distillate will begin to flow from the condenser.
8. The distillate enters the Copper Florentine Separator. Hydrosols and essential oils are separated here and begin to flow. Capture your essential oil in a bottle, and capture your hydrosols in a separate container.
9. After distillation, the flowers are spent and dumped out of the rotating column. Alembic Head is also emptied