8" Crystal Dragon R&D...

TheMechWarrior

In Australia the distillery is classed as a hazardous space. Hazardous chemical storage requires bunding, basically the distillery floor is classed as a bund. You can't have an open drain in a chemical bund for obvious reasons. In this situation, the LEL meter could eventually pick up the build up of vapour at the floor level.

grim

It takes a lot to make a LEL detector scream.

CothermanDistilling

@TheMechWarrior said: I've tested LEL sensors near a running stream of high strength spirit direct off the condenser. Unless you're hand width away the LEL doesn't even go off. A small leak and an open drain would not get picked up by an LEL meter.

I made my LEL go off for the very first time last week when hitting the soft button on the controller that turned on more heat instead of the cooling pump ;-) I had the heat back off well before it alerted, but then as the aroma went off, I instinctively ran to the meter to watch it work...... it only hit 10 on the meter, and 100 is the true LEL... lets just say that 10 is worse than walking by the nail salon in the shopping mall, I cannot imagine 100...

grim

I did the math once before, I’d need to vaporize half a kettle of wash to even come close.

TheMechWarrior

@grim I worked in a leaking ethanol environment with a 4-7% LEL. At 4% the atmosphere was barely tolerable. At 7% you couldn't comfortably breath in the room. At 20% I can only one breath would drop you in your tracks.

You will pick up on a problem with your plant LONG before any LEL meter does.

Any event capable of setting off a 20% LEL alarm it's likely a critical failure and highly obvious well in advance to anyone in the area.

CothermanDistilling

Welded up nicely, and ground/polished up inside and out

video before grinding and polishing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGqHSSPHm8

full frame:

zoomed in:

richard

Pity, you ought have back purged. That covering has was not a good idea. Maybe call in some speciality welders to help you and redo the weld area.

CothermanDistilling

I did back purge, did you watch the video? I had argon running for a good minute into the foil covered area and had the top slightly vented to make sure argon flushed other gassed out since it is heavier, there was no contamination on the outside other than a bit of discoloration that bled through from the inside.. I welded from the inside, I cleaned as best I could, but it was a pocket and a crack, and not like cleaning new metal sitting on your bench... if you walk up and I tell you I welded a spot, you have to look really hard to see where it was...

FloridaCracker

Nicely done Mike.

Ron

CothermanDistilling

Got my heat exchanger working the way I like it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Q83Eps3u0

PDF of the procedure is attached: Heat exchanger procedure (PDF)