Pressure Cooker Filter Press- Another crazy idea?

[tjintheshop]

Doing some last minute welding on the arch last night and ran out of wire so out came the 12 oz intelligence enhancers and we came up with an idea for filtering. Just wanted to see what you all think of this brainstorm?

modify an old 8 quart pressure canner into a pressure filter press:rolleyes:. Weld in a 3/4 inch coupling to the bottom, stainless mesh about one inch off the bottom that would hold the flat filters and a 1/2 coupling to the top. Put a valve on the bottom to drain out finished syrup and one to the top to add in unfiltered syrup. Hook up the jiggle spout to an air compressor set to 15 PSI.

Dont know if this would work or not but the procedure would be to draw off into the canner, close the draw off valve and open the air inlet valve. Then open the drain valve.

What do you think?

[buxtonboiler]

Someone on here posted that a while back. Sounds good though.

[Wardner in Tewksbury]

Forget about the compressed air. The entire canner will be at the same pressure without any differential above and below the filter. You might as well take the lid off so you can see what is happening. Moreover, if you open the bottom valve when pressurized, you will have maple vapor everywhere.

You need to find a better intelligence enhancer. Try Saturday morning TV cartoons.

[lpakiz]

Warder--He will have a pressure differential WHEN HE OPENS THE DRAIN OUT VALVE. That should push the syrup thru the filter, into the bottom compartment and out the bottling valve.
HEY--go for it!!

[Wardner in Tewksbury]

Warder--He will have a pressure differential WHEN HE OPENS THE DRAIN OUT VALVE. That should push the syrup thru the filter, into the bottom compartment and out the bottling valve.
HEY--go for it!!

I doubt it. Pressure will leak around the sides of the filter where it contacts the vessel. He would have to use an imperious membrane in that area and it would have to extend below the upper syrup level. It would also have to be backed up with a strong cage. The top of the membrane would have to be clamped between the vessel and the secure lid. The whole idea sounds like a cluster F*** and likely to be dangerous. Something like inflating a split rim truck tire. Lots of fatalities there.

The cheapest solution to filtering is gravity as in "settling". It also conserves the syrup lost in the filtering media. It requires no additional equipment. It is the old fashioned way and is probably the best way for backyard producers. All the dregs can be collected and re-settled several times if necessary.

Frankly, I don't understand why producers don't use centrifuges. I have never seen any mention of it.

[tjintheshop]

Well, we got it tested and seems to be working. We drew off the "syrup" (Water with regular sand in it cooked in an old pot on turkey cooker) into the feed line of the pressure cooker. Close the inlet valve, open the outlet valve and turn on 9 psi of air (these things run 15-25 psi normally so very safe). The "syrup" comes out of the bottom tube crystal clear. I need fifty gallons of sap to start cooking and cant wait to try it out with regular syrup. The flat filters trapped all the sand. Works very simular to the Lapierre style filter except uses air pressure instead of the pump. I will submit pics after we verify it works with regular syrup.

[tjintheshop]

"You need to find a better intelligence enhancer. Try Saturday morning TV cartoons".

I guess to each thier own but I always figured that this country was made by people sitting around an open fire discussing solutions to existing problems over a few intelligence enhancers. ;)

[maple flats]

Even if the process seems to work you likely will have a porblem. The compressed air must come from a perfectly clean source. Most compressors put out a slight oil film in the air, this would ruin the syrup. You might be able to do it with a food grade nitrogen as the power source, regulated down to 15# or what ever you think is needed. The other thing is that the wire mesh might need to be much stronger and a tighter mesh. Just consider the pressure on the rack, if the cooker is 12" diameter you have about 113 sq In, x 15#=almost 1700# pushing on that rack supporting the filters. If properly supported and a non contaminating push you basically have a Lapierre syro press, the upright round type.