propane evaporator.

[jrthe3]

I thinking about changing my 3x8 over I know that in our grain dryers we use way less propan then nat gas s I thinking to switch to propane see how it cheaper then fuel oil does anyone hnow what I have to do does anyone make a propane gun like a fuel oil gun or any ideas of how I could build one

[Tor Haxson]

I have worked with some glassblowers that build propane burners with a blower.

Have yet to build an arch, I am at the steam pan phase of maple sap boiling.

So I am sure someone with more experience will add to this thread, but just an FYI, glassblowers need hot flames to heat furnaces. They use.. ceramic burner heads like these
http://www.pineridgeburner.com/sales

The metalworkers favor more home brewed burners like these..
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1031532-My-new-homemade-stainless-propane-burner-Thanks-Guys!

And here
http://mikegigi.com/burner.htm#MAKING

--
Tom

[1ruralmailman]

i run a 2x3 flat pan with dividers.it was originally a wood deal,but i converted it to propane around ten years ago.i use three H shaped gas grill burners out of bbq grills,made a shelf for them to sit on just under the pan. i built a manifold for it out of 1/4 inch flex.Copper tubing and use a set of bbq grill controls to feed them.it works great,i can bring 1.5to 2 inches of ice cold sap to a rolling boil in around 8to 10 minutes.makes getting going a breeze after working all day.

[palmer4th]

I was wondering if anyone uses or knows anyone who uses a propane evaporator? I know there is the hobby style that works more like a grill, but I was working in a house and came across a old propane blower nozzle for a furnace. Could something like that be used in an arch? How does the heat and consumption compare to oil?

[Burnt sap]

I know a guy who uses a propane deep fry cooker the one that restaurants use to cook French fries. It works pretty good he makes about three gallons a season with it.

[mapleack]

Boyd, natural gas will probably be cheaper than propane, provided you have it available. I use nat gas now, I think there's one pic on my facebook page. Gary Billek also uses nat gas, different burners than mine, you aren't that far from him to look at his setup.

[Rangdale]

We batch boil with a 2x3 pan and heat it with 2 sets of 3 15k BTU cast iron burners that we bought. I usually start with 5 gallons in the pan and can get it boiling within 6-8 minutes and can keep it at a rolling boil with the burners on med/low. It's really fast to start up and shut down and we can make about 2.5 gallons of syrup on a pair of propane tanks which we fill for $11. This works great for us as we are just "backyarders" making whatever we can of 65 taps for personal and friend consumption.

[palmer4th]

I was more wondering If you can use the oil burner type nozzle, but the ones made to burn propane. We get it for a good price in bulk.

[mapleack]

Palmer, you defintely could use a burner like that, heat is heat. You need to calculate how many btu's your arch needs and see if the burner you have is capable of that. A factory oil fired 2x6 should take around 2.4 gallons of oil per hour, or 336,000 btu's. The firebox has to be constructed a bit differently than in a woodfired arch as well to get satisfactory efficiency.

[Bill]

Boyd,
Last Nov. at LEME in Albion they talked about different fuels and propane was one they said was high in BTU's. We use fuel oil and would like to investigate other fuels.

Bill
Ft. LeBoeuf Maple

[mapleack]

FYI, if you have natural gas available: there are 91,000 btu's per gallon propane, 140,000 btu per gallon fuel oil, and 1,000,000 btu per thousand cubic feet (mcf) natural gas. Average price for propane right now is 2.49 per gallon, fuel oil is 4.04 per gallon and natural gas is 9.75 per mcf. Propane therefore is roughly twice as expensive as natural gas and fuel oil is three times more expensive than natural gas.

[jrthe3]

your price of propane is for home heat I can purchace it for $1.17 (threw our buyers group) a gallon taxe tree cause it used to make food I don't know what difference is but we used way less propane to dry our corn this year then nat gas we used last year we had to have a 2 inch gas line feeded dryers propan only took 5/8 inch line

[shane hickey]

your price of propane is for home heat I can purchace it for $1.17 (threw our buyers group) a gallon taxe tree cause it used to make food I don't know what difference is but we used way less ;propane to dry our corn this year then nat gas we used last year we had to have a 2 inch gas line feeded dryers propan only took p5/8 inch line

Natural gas here in michigan is 3 times cheeper then propane its also 3.89 theres a huge amount of natuarl
Gas. I use it for drying corn to. Theres also companys you can buy through to get it cheeper yet.

[shane hickey]

Looked at my bill for last year it was a little over $9000 if it was propane it would be close to 30 grand
But i wont think that different states would be that far off.

[jrthe3]

is there a formula for figering btu for evaporators use

[mapleack]

Boyd, if you can get propane that cheap it's very close to natural gas in cost. If you have nat gas right there it might still be slightly cheaper and not require relying on deilvery. The reason propane needed a smaller pipe is that it runs at higher pressure out of a tank than nat gas does from a standard low pressure pipeline. The rough formula for btu is length x width divided by 5 equals gallons of fuel oil per hour. So multiply that by 140,000 and you get the rough btu's per hour for your rig. Some need more, some less, insulation of arch, stack length, flue pan etc all come into play in fine tuning required btu per hour beyond the rough calc.

[jrthe3]

I do have gas but the problem is it not a gas line it just a well and when we would run our dryers the well would freeze out and we would loose gas for a few hours

[mapleack]

Possibly compare the grain dryer consumption to your possible evaporator consumption to see if you'd be using enough to cause the wellhead to freeze? Or maybe put a heater on the well line? Tons of wells out there with heaters on em to keep them from freezing off.

[Daves Maple Farm]

mapleack,if my numbers are correct, my 2x8 wood will need about 480000 +/_ btu per hour of gas. Question is, how hard will this hit an old well carrying 12lbs pressure or is their no way to tell. Well has been primary source of heat for 30 years and only problem is we need to hit it now and then with alcohol. We run 6 oz. pressure at the house which is about 2500 ft from the well running 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 (not sure which, been a long time) gas line. Your thoughts?

[mapleack]

You'd have to do a blow down open flow test on the well and see how fast it recovered, but I don't know the exact details on calculating that. I'd be leery at that low of pressure when you're counting on it for your house. It might be ok, might not be. Perhaps you'd be better just taking advantage of it for a gas finisher and hot water tank in the sugarhouse. I'm fortunate enough to be feeding right off a gathering line that 17 wells feed through.