RO for next season?!?!

[tonka]

Is there anyone who made themselves an R.O. machine that can handle around 100 gph? What components and size of parts would I need to make a fully operated machine?

[spud]

Flatlander made one this year with Thad.

Spud

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

yea they work great for home built. Thad did a lot of shopping around I did a two tower and Thad did a three. His is for sale right now on Craigs list check it out I think its really reasonably priced.

[bowhunter]

Tonka,

I'm an old retired engineer and I haven't built an RO so don't hold that against me. I've designed a system for myself (20 GPH once through 75% reduction) and I've ordered the parts. I will put it together and test it out later this spring. I've done a lot of research and read almost every post on this forum concerning RO. In order to size you system you need to decide a couple of things. What Brix is your sap typically and what Brix level do you want to get to? For example the standard is about 75% water removal so you could take 2% and increase it to 8%. Second do you want to achieve the reduction in one pass through your system or do you want to let it run all night on recycle back to the sap storage tank? Do you want to feed your evaporator directly from the RO and if so want rate concentrate flow do you need?

A homemade RO is usually pretty easy to build and you can get them to perform for a short period of time, but they are pretty particular if you want to sustain the performance over a longer period of time. I've seen several guys on the forum who have abandoned the first system they built because it failed early on, usually because of not enough flow through the membrane and squeezing too much permeate through the first membrane.

I'll give you an idea of my system and the cost. It will handle 20 GPH of 2% and bring it up to about 8% in one pass. It's based on a single nano filtration membrane (Dow NF90 2540) 2 1/2 inch x 40 inch with a 140 GPH Procon pump. The total system cost is $950 for the equipment and all of the electrical and piping, fittings, needle valves, flow meters and tubing. Your system would cost considerably more ( 2 to 3 times) because it would be 5 times as large. It will require a much larger pump and possibly a feed pump plus more or larger membranes.