I have a big supply of benzyl cyanide and am about to begin manufacturing. Will it destroy the product p2p or the freebase meth to distill without a vacuum. I have a hotplate stirrer that goes up to 500F so it's not a problem producing enough heat. I don't want to destroy the product in the process. Is the vacuum just for convenience or is it 100% necessary? I do not have the money for a vacuum pump as I spent all my money on bribes to get my chemicals, the on 150 kilos of benzyl cyanide. In my country chemicals are not as much cared about as they are for some of you.

Also, in the following synthesis is it really necessary to use toluene or ether? I ask because I look up phenylacetone and it is insoluble in water. Why not just use the ketone layer and wash it with dH2O 3 or 4 times?

Quote

350 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid is placed in a 3000ml flask and cooled to -10°C. The total first crop of moist alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile obtained according to the procedure above (corresponding to 188-206g or 1.2-1.3 moles of dry product) is added slowly, with shaking, the temp being kept below 20°C (If pure dry alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile is used, half its weight of water should be added to the sulfuric acid or charring will take place on the steam bath). After all is added the flask is warmed on the steam bath until solution is complete and then for five minutes longer. The solution is cooled to 0°C, 1750ml of water added rapidly, and the flask placed on a vigorously boiling water bath and heated for two hours, with occasional shaking. The ketone forms a layer and, after cooling, is separated and the acid layer extracted with 600ml of ether. The oil and ether layers are washed successively with 100ml of water, the ether combined with the oil and dried over 20g of anhydrous sodium sulfate. The sodium sulfate is collected on a filter, washed with ether, and discarded. The ether is removed from the filtrates, and the residue distilled from a modified Claisen flask with a 25 cm fractionating side arm. The fraction boiling at 110-112°C at 24 mmHg is collected; it weighs 125-150g (77-86% of the theoretical amount).

Forgive my childish ignorance but I need to get producing fast, within a few days to get money to pay back loans or I might get serious harm to me or my family.