# does distilling water remove toxins like bpa



## zakith (May 9, 2014)

Hi, 
new to prepping and just trying to get a few basics down. If you distill water does that remove any and all toxins. 

Also, I ran across a guy online who is getting 55 gallon drums from water treatment plants that used to contain "water based anti-foam". He reasoned that they were using what was in the drums to treat drinking water so the drums must be safe. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I read somewhere that the water to be distilled should be allowed to boil off any volatile compounds before the steam is routed thru the condenser. Otherwise yes, distilled water should be the best way to go, followed by Reverse Osmosis.
The drums that contained the anti-foaming agent is a toss up. Read the label for info and toxicity. I would *guess* you could fill the drum with water for a few days and try to get any residue of the agent to leech into the water and then repeat and repeat again. But then again, I'm a little nutty about shit in my drinking water.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

If you use a pot still to distill your water then you have to discard the product that boils off first the remaining should be water as long as yo don't let the temperature in the retort (the part of the still that the steam is transferred to the condenser) go above 212F (100C).

If you use a reflux still then you can control the temperature of the distillate so you can distill the water out of wine or vinegar and get just water.

If you take it a step further and build a cracking tower you can separate the water and alcohol and the higher esters all at the same time. A cracking tower is just a series of reflux stills mounted on top of each other with taps at different temperature points to collect those elements that you want and leave the rest in the tailing.


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## nephilim (Jan 20, 2014)

Reverse osmosis isn't needed if you are boiling and condensing the water. If you boil off the water, and condense it through any form of tubing to a secondary bottle/container, then any salt/creatures/bacteria/viruses would have been removed.

When I went to an island off the coast of Crete, I couldn't get back until a boat came to pick me up. I ran out of water quickly, so boiling and condensing sea water was my only option. The result was plain water. No salt or anything.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Since I have a Reverse Osmosis unit for home, I was thinking of Reverse Osmosis instead of distillation but I would need some good pressure behind the water to operate it.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Low boiling impurities MAY be separated by distillation from water providing they have a large enough difference in vapor pressures for the distillation equipment being used, and used *properly*. The same with high boiling impurities.

Water _insoluble _ impurities (BPA ,PCBs, gasoline, motor oil, etc...) pose a whole other problem with distillation. They will co-distill in a process known as steam distillation and will not be separated. In fact they may be concentrated in the distillate relative to what is being distilled. The relative amounts only depend on their normal vapor pressures compared to water and is independent of the concentrations in what is being distilled


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

Mad Trapper said:


> Low boiling impurities MAY be separated by distillation from water providing they have a large enough difference in vapor pressures for the distillation equipment being used, and used *properly*. The same with high boiling impurities.
> 
> Water _insoluble _ impurities (BPA ,PCBs, gasoline, motor oil, etc...) pose a whole other problem with distillation. They will co-distill in a process known as steam distillation and will not be separated. In fact they may be concentrated in the distillate relative to what is being distilled. The relative amounts only depend on their normal vapor pressures compared to water and is independent of the concentrations in what is being distilled


Mad Trapper, If the water as steam is lifted at 212F the gasoline and "higher" esters will remain as steam in the column of a reflux still and will not condense into the retort. If you are using a pot still then you have to dispose of the first run or find a way to keep the higher esters gaseous as the steam flashes back to water (that is what the reflux column does).


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

paraquack said:


> Since I have a Reverse Osmosis unit for home, I was thinking of Reverse Osmosis instead of distillation but I would need some good pressure behind the water to operate it.


What kind of reverse osmosis unit do you have for your home? I was thinking of getting one for our kitchen drinking water. The simple filter unit we have now is just not cutting it. How long do the filters last? Does it really need the tank or is the filtration process so slow that it is not practical to do on demand?

*Edit:* Did a cursory search on the web and found that it takes roughly 3 hours to fill the tank. So ignore my last question.


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