Professional essential oil production can be done using a system like the one above.

Because
the distillate receiver is in the boiler, the oils are kept hot so this will impart an off note for
some oils, but this off note is sometimes desired. It all depends on the customers needs.

However, steam distillation of essential oils and separation of the individual oils (fractional
distillation) of an essential oil are always done in two separate passes. The reason is that its
not possible to separate individual oils while they are steam distilling because they pretty
much all distill at nearly the same temperature (just slightly below the temperature of water).
Also systems suited for steam distillation differ from those suited for fractional distillation.

Individual essential oil separation (fractional distillation), like separating the high boiling point
myristicin essential oil from the low boiling point sabinene essential oil in nutmeg essentail oil,
requires vacuum fractional distillation or you will degrade the oils. Also water cannot be
present. If the oils to be separated boil at temperatures that are close together this also
requires slow distillation and a packed distilling column or something similar. Such a system is
not well suited for steam distillation.

Because standard essential oil steam distillation doesnt require a vacuum, implosions are of
no concern, so super huge systems can be constructed cheaply out of stainless steel or
copper (stainless steel is preferred). They dont need to be vacuum tight and they can be run
at maximum power to speed up the process. Many pounds of herb can be done at once.

When doing vacuum fractional distillation to separate the individual oils, large systems are not
advised. The danger or implosion increases with the size of the distillation setup. Also over
heating the boiling flask or boiling chamber causes rapid distillation, and this will make
individual oil separation more difficult. To properly separate oils, distillation should happen at a
slow pace, about 1 drop per second or slower. When steam distilling essential oils as a whole,
this is not a concern. You can steam distill as rapid as you like.

For these reasons, a distillation setup designed for steam distilling essential oils should be a
separate system designed for steam distillation, while the one used for separating individual
oils should be one designed for fractional distillation.

If going for a lab glass system, you can easily get all the glass parts to convert your system
from a steam distillation system to a vacuum fractional distillation system. However, youre
limited by the size of the system. A large glass system is not at all advised, especially with
vacuum fractional distillation. The larger the glass the more likely it will implode under
vacuum, sending shards of glass everywhere, possibly killing someone. For this reason,
professionals do not use glass systems. They are too dangerous. A heavy stainless steal
vacuum distillation system is far less likely to implode.

My recommendation, have two separate systems. Think about it. If you steam distill parsnips
solely for essential oil production, youll want to do several pounds at a time. Such a large
system is not at all suited for vacuum distillation. After you distill the essential oil, the amount
of oil will be very small compared to the original plant matter. 1 pound of herb will produce
about 5 ml of essential oil. If you want to make 100 ml of oil youll need to steam distill about
20 pounds of herbs in many cases. Thats a lot of herb for a small amount of oil. Imagine how
large of a system you need to steam distill 20 pounds of herb to get 100 ml of oil! Once the oil
is collected, its a tiny amount. If you then want to separate the essential oil into its individual
components by fractional distillation, your fractional distillation system should be very small,
just large enough to distill 100 ml, or it will not be efficient