preheating with condensate

[springhills]

Has anybody tried preheating sap with their steamaway condensate? I get about 40 percent of the sap that runs through the evaporator back as hot water. I figure I should be able to heat incoming sap almost 40% of the way to the hot water temp with a heat exchanger of some kind. I've also always wanted to run cold sap through the smokestack. I guess this is where your mind wanders whan there's no sap to keep busy with.

[WF MASON]

Anythings possible , I've had a few people talk about making a basestack preheater , then during maplerama 3-4 years ago I saw one, a stainless waterjacketed basestack, looked very simple , the guy said it worked great.

[3% Solution]

It's all about tweeking!!!!!

[ontario guy]

i was thinking of another innovative idea...i might be harder to do with the larger evaporators to keep the densitity levels flowing correctly.

my idea is to have the fresh/preheated sap come in through spray bars under your steam hood... like on a sprayer. to have a pressurizing mist of hot sap injected into the steam. How much of this would get evaporated before it even got to the pan? you would also need your regular float to get the volume of sap you need to your evaporator, and hopefully you would have enough so you don't make syrup in your flue pan....

We just need someone to run some experiments...

Mark

[saphead]

In response to a couple of posts:The spray nozzle idea is being used a few miles from my house,it's invevtor the late John Logan was a papermill engineer,and he and Bette Fog nozzle made up some nozzles that spray sap onto a double slanted surface under the steam hood. I'd have to go and take a closer look for more info,the sugarer that is leasing the operation from John's widow won't mind.
As to the condensate being used to preheat the sap I would recommend a parrallel plate heat exchanger.These are used a lot in the radiant heat industry and are made from stainless. A condensate sump would have to be used, as a pump would be required to push the condensate through the exchanger,the sap might go through on it's own with proper head pressure. Flow rates for heat transfer are probably on the manufactuer's web site.

[Fred Henderson]

Has anybody tried preheating sap with their steamaway condensate? I get about 40 percent of the sap that runs through the evaporator back as hot water. I figure I should be able to heat incoming sap almost 40% of the way to the hot water temp with a heat exchanger of some kind. I've also always wanted to run cold sap through the smokestack. I guess this is where your mind wanders whan there's no sap to keep busy with.



Wandering minds have come up with some great inventions. So just let it go.

[brookledge]

Keep in mind to make it simple to drain out any thing made so that freezing and rupturing lines isn't a problem. Sure don't want to go into the sugarhouse thinking you are all set to go and have alot of sap only to find a split pipe. Sap usually doesn't freeze solid unless it gets real cold but the condensate from a pre-heater or steamaway will freeze solid as a rock.
Keith

[WF MASON]

I remember Grimm or Leader was working on a spray hood in the late 80's early 90's that sprayed sap onto upright panels inside the hood , it flowed into the channel I guess then to the float. But I don't think it worked well so they scraped it. The steamaway with its suspended sap flying around works much better.