Re: Chlorine in distilled water (EDITED - broken links fixed)
Hmmmm, I am not so sure though. Firstly my tap water has no fluoride or chlorine, my local UK water authority (Thames water) choose not to add fluorine. The test results document I was sent shows no chlorine or fluoride. I was not aware that chlorine was added to drinking water, though maybe it is in other countries. But NOT in the UK as far as I am aware.
Secondly, are you sure about that? To the best of my knowledge, chlorine does not evaporate and condense with the water during the distillation process. Of course, theoretically, chlorine (if it were present) could evaporate into a gas form, and subsequently recondense in the resulting distillate. However the cone has no base, so I would imagine most of the gas (if any at all were present) would simply get transported away, as I am pretty sure that chlorine does not condense in liquid form on a surface in the same way that water does. So even IF chlorine were present, I am sure the quantities would be massively diminished by the distillation process, if not eliminated altogether.
MINI-RESEARCH:
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Well, after the above theory, which is based upon my
Science background and local UK knowledge, I did look this up. It appears that some authorities DO put chlorine in the water, and using A PARTICULAR distillation method, chlorine is formed in the distillate in reduced concentration (3 or 4 ppm instead of 5). See the two pages listed at
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1825192.
However, I am pretty sure that the design of the water cone still, with its open base, would result in a much reduced if not zero quantity of chlorine in the final product, even if there were chlorine present in the original liquid (which there is NOT in the UK).
Much of this would relate to the volatility of chlorine and its affinity to water at the temperature of the distillate.
Again I am not fully au fait with the chemistry, but I am aware that sunlight breaks down chlorine, so I think a solar still would be less prone to this type of problem. See
http://www.lenntech.com/water-disinfection/disinfectants-chlorine.htm:
"How can chlorine be stored? Watery chlorine should be protected from sunlight. Chlorine is broken down under the influence of sunlight. UV radiation in sunlight provides energy which aids the break-down of underchloric acid (HOCl) molecules."
Conclusion:
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For anyone in the UK, this would not be an issue as chlorine is not added. For other countries I suppose the best thing to do would be to write to the manufacturers of the water cone and ask for test results. In any case, I think the water still would produce better results or be as good as a table top distiller. As an example, this table top still
http://www.home-water-distiller.com/
uses a valve to release the chlorine gas, in much the same way as the cone would through its open base. However, I suspect the cone would also utilise sunlight in the breakdown of any chlorine, so it may be better. Possibly.