SD 2" Product Condenser Long - Knockdown Capacity

Will the SD knock down 6kw with cold water and a reasonable flow rate?

I have a "no name" condensor with 5 x 10mm tubes, 450mm long and it can barely cope with 3kw.

Comments

  • If you can relate this back, i know the 2" long will knock down about 10l an hour in summer. put 2 in series and you'll nearly double it.

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  • edited June 2020

    I use it with 5.5kw element.

    I'm using recirculating water from a water tank.

    Is OK, but the distillate is going to nearly 30°C in the current UK climate.

    Water flow meter is showing around 15 litres / minute.

    @punkin
    How difficult is it to connect them?

    i.e. how "connected" will the vapour pipes be?

    Maybe use a rod to help with alignment.

    Down the line, with a 500 litre boiler (currently 100), I cannot see how this condenser is going to be OK.

    Would be 5 x 5.5kw elements.

    No doubt I would need to be actively cooling the water circuit.

    Or switch to 4 inch condenser?

  • Yes you'd use a larger condensor. They weren't designed for that, but for the 50-120l setups. Even on the 200l Duck's Nuts i supply 3" condensors that will do at least double the knockdown.

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  • My need is a reflux condensor, not product cooling, although the theory is much the same I imagine.

    I have a 6" dephleg that I assumed I could use as a reflux condensor, it is 220mm long, has 18 x 12mm tubes... if i use more than 2kw vapour leaks out of the top.. this is with a healthy flow of water from the mains.. and UK water from the mins is cool.

    So I figured I'd swap it out with a shotgun condensor, as mentioned though my no namer condensor can't cool product in PC capacity with more than 3kw.

    The SD 3" condensor cost isn't much more, is the capacity of that significantly greater than the 2" SD shotgun?

  • dephleg

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  • Wow @needmorestuff you always need more stuff. I have a SD 2" condensor and it works pretty well for me putting one a 200l boiler using 9kw from two 4500 elements. I do use a 20m3 swimming pool as the cooling reservoir so I dont need more stuff.

  • Well with your pool I'd say you domt need more stuff either.

    So reading between the "lines" you say a 2 inch sd pc. Knocks down 9kw? Yet someone else says it struggles with 5.5. Maybe your pool is just very cold.

  • None of this makes sense to me.

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  • @punkin do you know if the 2" or 3" SD condensor is capable of producing 100% reflux with a heat source of 6kw with a good flow rate of cold water?

  • What I’m confused about is why would you replace a 6” condenser with a 2” one?

  • good flow rate and cold water are subjective

    A 2" long PC is a great tool to have in your toolbox, and is not expensive by any means.

    IMHO, you will be able to do this, but you may need to put some ss scrubbie material inside the tubes..

    Also IMHO, if you are using cold water at a fast enough flow, and put said cold water in from the bottom, you will not be just knocking down vapor, but cooling the condensed liquid, which is very wasteful on energy... Fast flow of colder water should be from the top down, fast enough to flush air if possible, and closely monitor the exit water temperature at the bottom, if it is too cold, you have cooling and heating fighting each other with no gain in distillation..

  • edited June 2020

    You can turbocharge a small shotgun by putting a pump on it to increase the flow rate inside the condenser without having to increase the flow rate to it. My guess is you can push at least 25% more capacity by doing this. With high enough flow rate, co-current and counter-current becomes irrelevant.

    Shitty drawing, I lost my paint tool. Flow of the pump in this case is down.

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  • @Unsensibel said: What I’m confused about is why would you replace a 6” condenser with a 2” one?

    The 6" is only 220mm long and will only knock down 1.75kw

  • @CothermanDistilling said: good flow rate and cold water are subjective

    A 2" long PC is a great tool to have in your toolbox, and is not expensive by any means.

    IMHO, you will be able to do this, but you may need to put some ss scrubbie material inside the tubes..

    Also IMHO, if you are using cold water at a fast enough flow, and put said cold water in from the bottom, you will not be just knocking down vapor, but cooling the condensed liquid, which is very wasteful on energy... Fast flow of colder water should be from the top down, fast enough to flush air if possible, and closely monitor the exit water temperature at the bottom, if it is too cold, you have cooling and heating fighting each other with no gain in distillation..

    I do have a 2" as.stated but it ain't the best, 5 tubes and struggles with 3kw. I dont know if it has internal baffles.. but.then I dont know if the SD one does.

    So before I get another 2" I just wondered how the SD would cope, the extra tubes will help for sure and I have thought about SS.scrubby.to increase surface area.

    Cold in from the top is a new one on me, I'd always put cold in bottom to ensure.flooding. I'll give that some thought.

  • @grim said: Shitty drawing, I lost my paint tool. Flow of the pump in this case is down.

    Very interesting

  • Why do you want to link your knock down rate to a particular power input? Why not turn the power down like everyone else so you get full reflux and then gradually increase the power or turn down the water flow when you want to draw product?

    Why does it have to knock down 7kw instead of 2.1 or something? Are you trying to avoid building a controller?

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  • this reflux condensor sits atop a 25l soxhlet extractor, so high power is required to keep an extraction cycle time to a reasonable level.

  • ahh, i don't get it because i don't have the technical knowledge OK. Wouldn't have the foggiest what that is.

    CarryOnPunkin

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  • I'm not sure if that is sarcasm?

    I thought it was a relatively easy question, can the 2" or 3" sd pc full reflux a 6kw power source.

    Or if that's impossible to answer, does the 3" have more cooling capacity than the 2" - I will be buying one of them

  • Not sarcasm at all mate. It might be an easy question for someone who operates the same kind of rig in the same way that you do, but i'm not that guy. At heart i was a potstiller in a long ago hobby, i have more in common with @zymurgybob than someone who operates a rig i can't pronounce.

    Sure someone will be able to answer.

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  • That why I didnt mention the soxhlet, its largely irrelevant as all I really want to know is what are the specs of an SD product.

  • edited June 2020

    Well the specs are the dimensions, the actual power it knocks down will be dependent on many other things. Like asking a trail bike manufacturer how far the bike will jump. Much better off listening to @grim than me.

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  • @needmorestuff In winter which is now the pool temp is about 10 deg c. In summer its about 23 and I use an immersion pump that pumps about 400 to 500 l per hour but i have never measured it. I guess I dont need more stuff. At least until i move into my shed to start my commercial operations. Then I will need more stuff and some cooling water.

  • We've used the 4 x 20 PC as the reflux condenser on a soxhlet type apparatus just to insure full knock down.

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  • how much power you throwing at that @Smaug

  • I dont really know what the customer is throwing at it?

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  • Kettle is a BM set up for 6 elements. Not sure if they have 3 phase power or what? One of my sales guys customers so not completely familiar beyond the actual config.

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