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StillDragon North America Bulletin Board

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  • I am setting the 1000L BM up tomorrow for a rum strip on tuesday..., I will put a small vent valve before the PRV and I may run it without venting and take some numbers such as takeoff rate and power that can be applied before PRV, then vent a good bit and re-take measurements...

  • I would rather have 2 2x36 HX's than 1 3x36HX... I am for super high efficiency, and that comes with length...

    Why do I like super efficient HX's? Florida..... My 8"x1.2meter PC runs 0.5gpm when cooling 20L/hr of 190... it puts out 168-169 degree water with a 171 vapor temp, which my outside Water-Air HX can cool down to within 5 degrees of ambient. This goes into a 250gal tote and gets me 500 minutes of cooling before the cooling water temps rise 5 degrees...(75-80 or 80-85... or in mid summer, 85-90..) If I ran a less efficient product condenser, I might have to run 1gpm putting out 150F water, and the outside HX would still cool to the same level(maybe) because the liquid is spending less time in the HX...

    The 2x 2"x36 I am getting will likely find their home in series in a tall continuous stripper and will extract a huge portion of the heat from the distillate to heat the still feed... I will compare running distillate vs running feed through the center tubes and a few methods to keep the super-heated feed under pressure until it hits the column, such as gear pump, peristaltic pump, and a large, but somewhat restrictive orifice that can handle some solids... About 2/3 of the energy in a still is used to heat the feed and the other third to vaporize it... If I can get the feed to the boiling point, I can make a 6kw steam generator make low wines as fast as a 18kw pot still with just a small 2"x20" safety PC running city water... and that is without collecting heat from the bottoms to pre-heat the steam generator feed water... collect half that heat and now 3kw runs a 18kw still...

  • edited April 2019

    Run distillate through the jacket and beer through the through tubes because,,, well ethanol is a solvent and cleaning the interior shell will not be as critical and it will be a bit more difficult to clean compared to the through tubes. Similarly for the second HX, bottoms through the jacket because in this case the jacket does not need cleaning to only discharge bottoms. And final beer preheat through the tubes because, again the tubes are easier to access for cleaning

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  • @Smaug said: Run distillate through the jacket and beer through the through tubes because,,, well ethanol is a solvent and cleaning the interior shell will not be as critical and it will be a bit more difficult to clean compared to the through tubes. Similarly for the second HX, bottoms through the jacket because in this case the jacket does not need cleaning to only discharge bottoms. And final beer preheat through the tubes because, again the tubes are easier to access for cleaning

    yeah, that is what I was thinking for the PC/wash-heater HX...

    but bottoms are 20% more solids than the wash is, so might use a dephlegmator and use the heat to pre-heat the water going into the steam generator... and a dephleg for the bottoms reboiler... where both have the wash in the inner tubes

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  • What’s the purpose of the reboiler in the above drawing? Does it draw thru by convection only?

    Is your first heating to the beer done by the reflux condenser or the PC? How does that effect reflux controllability?

  • No reflux on a stripper usually.

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  • edited April 2019

    The reboiler next to the bottoms tank is configured as a thermosiphon reboiler, as liquid is boiled off in the reboiler, it's continually refilled to the height of the bottoms tank. The fluid being heated in the reboiler will rise as it warms, hence the thermosiphon name.

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    Very often it's positioned horizontally, not vertically, to reduce the liquid volume required.

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  • @Fiji_Spirits said: What’s the purpose of the reboiler in the above drawing? Does it draw thru by convection only?

    Is your first heating to the beer done by the reflux condenser or the PC? How does that effect reflux controllability?

    leftover from last year's version of the drawing...

  • That is what I have on the bottom right, don't see much of a difference..

    I am just using the one on the bottom to recover heat from the 212F/100C bottoms product that has 80% of the liquid volume, which is not insignificant...

    what was not pictured for clarity is the details of the steam generator.. I cannot have a standard steam boiler. I will be using an abbott/grim style steam generator with offset level/fill chamber.. that takes the near heated to boiling bottoms and transfers heat to the incoming steam generator..

    updated drawing...

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  • So your wash is being heated exclusively by the product condenser array?

    Does this mean you are able to get more or less complete heating and removal of product before it hits bottoms tank or are you depending on the reboiler to a greater degree?

    What are your beer column entry temps?

  • No the wash is being Preheated by the HXs prior to injection. Ideal preheat temps round bout 172-173.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • the highest the PC/beer feed HX's will heat is the vapor temp... so 172-3 is about right...

    when it hits the bottoms tank, it might have a bit left in, but the steam reboiler gets a second shot to get rid of it...

  • @jbierling said: I'm interested myself in how much purging will affect my strips. I'll find out Wednesday.

    OK, this morning, I vented 'some' steam from the side with the PRV once it got to 10PSI, it seemed to drop PSI and hold at that lower pressure, an indication that better heat transfer was occurring..

    after thinking for a few minutes, I shut off power, let it cool to 5psi and started loosening the other side with gloves and let it seep to 2psi and then removed it and let the steam whoooomp out... I put the end cap back on and fired it up, it rose quickly t 5PSI then slowed way down, and took 30 minutes to get back up to 8PSI, at which point the wash wash heated to a much higher temp...

    venting works... the best way to do it? I dunno, lets work on it...

  • was able to run at 36Kw for a good amount of time and stay under 15psi, foam made me cut back (forgot to add fermcap) running at 27KW for a bit, now at 30Kw and 17psi and it is cranking away, I am happy now, and the bigger paddles will make it perfect...

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  • edited April 2019

    I think you need one of my HX units ... serious surface area. :-O

    In any case my 3" wort / mash cooler well into production / assembly.

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  • @Smaug makes those, just ask for a quote

  • edited April 2019

    @Smaug .... does not help me now as I am now 99% complete but for info and pricing ?? and what surface area ?? performance ??

    I have seen a few people whom make these but not in the same way as I have.

  • We've done a 20T/h unit for an outfit in North Carolina.

    Any size is fine.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • It is a great day when you go to order stuff from the SD NA store and it is ON SALE...

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  • Yep.

    Had that happen last week!

    What did you get? I got a GB4.

    FC

  • A grand worth of 8" stuff, but now it looks like the sale is not applied to my order... scratching head...

  • @CothermanDistilling said: A grand worth of 8" stuff, but now it looks like the sale is not applied to my order... scratching head...

    Let me see what happened Michael

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Ah sure. The discount applies as self serve on the web store.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Dianne took care of it, as always, she is great...

  • edited August 2019

    Hey gang,

    The hobby sized cross flow condensers are in.

    They are 2" (50.8 mm) D x 40" (1016 mm) long and have 4/ 19 mm through tubes that are rifled (compliments to @CothermanDistilling)

    These are the condensers intended to preheat incoming, grain in beer as you may recall.

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    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • 4/19 mm through tubes are reeeally thin, doncha think? B-)

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Doh!!!! Smarty Panties....

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited August 2019

    I love eBay. Two basically brand new sanitary pump heads for $500 delivered. These guys run $1200 new.

    Fixed CIP system here we come!!

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  • edited August 2019

    Oh joy!!!
    Guess what this is?!!!

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    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

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