GPH needed for capital production equipment with 45k taps high vacuum collection?

[jeugster]

By "production" I mean costs after sap storage up to finished syrup in bulk barrels.

What's your guess for GPH? Is that the right metric?

Any idea of cost?

[Shaun]

At least 200K. Its a guess, I do know what I have in nice efficient equipment for a projected 2000 tap operation and its more than I like to think about.

[Shaun]

At least 200K. Its a guess, I do know what I have in nice efficient equipment for a projected 2000 tap operation and its more than I like to think about.

I think I forgot the decimal, Good thing I'm not an accountant.

[jrmaple]

"GPH" all depends on if you run an RO (reverse osmosis) and to what percentage you concentrate the sap to. On my set up I can handle about 8,000 taps concentrating to 12% on my 30x12 evaporator with all the bells and whistles I get 300 gph of sap evaporation. You could probably get away with a 4x14 evaporator with bells and whistles if you concentrate your sap to 10-12% and run the evaporator at 600 gph. New evaporator would cost around 50-60k and RO would be up high too, bulk storage for all the raw sap would be about a dollar a gallon so on a good day you want 45k storage in the woods at least (I say that because on large systems it is hard to keep the vacuum tight and production won't be as good as a smaller tighter system like my 2k tap bush where I maintain 26.5". Hope this helps you a little….

[n8hutch]

I think you should check out some larger operations within a days drive of you to see how they are doing it, and what they have for equipment. Assuming that you haven't already. I know a guy near me that maintained 26+ inches of vac on 25k taps this year so sap production is only going to be limited by how many people you want to employ chasing leaks, I bet you could get 60,000 gallons of sap in a 24 hr period. So your going to want at least 5000 gph of RO capacity. If you went to 20% that still leaves you with a 12-14 hour day on the gushers.
You would be filling 2 barrels an hour.

Ever seen a rig running at that kind of volume? It's pretty neat. You certainly need some bodies around. Good luck if you end up chasing those taps. That's a big jump.

[WestfordSugarworks]

Some guys near me got 3 gals of sap per tap in a 24 hour period off of about 26k taps. They produced .66 gal of syrup per tap this year. They had many 12+ hour boiling days and are selling their wood fired evaporator for an oil fired and are getting more powerful ROs. I would recommend concentrating as high as possible as quickly as possible, and getting a big rig that boils as efficiently as possible (get a 6x18). Try to get equipment that will allow you to be in the sugarhouse as little as possible, allowing you to put your labor dollars into a woods crew that will keep your vac tight and the sap coming in strong. I don't know much about pricing for this kind of equipment but my opinion is to shoot for high efficiency, especially when buying equipment for the sugarhouse.

[DrTimPerkins]

Try to get equipment that will allow you to be in the sugarhouse as little as possible, allowing you to put your labor dollars into a woods crew that will keep your vac tight and the sap coming in strong. I don't know much about pricing for this kind of equipment but my opinion is to shoot for high efficiency, especially when buying equipment for the sugarhouse.

I would tend to agree with this approach. Your money is made in the woods and spent in the sugarhouse. If you're shooting for high volume, you should strive to limit your expenses in the sugarhouse by being as efficient as possible, by spending as little time and $ as you can to get the syrup in the drum, and by getting back into the woods to make sure your vacuum levels stay high all season long.

[jeugster]

Thank you Dr. Perkins for the advice and for your extensive contributions to public maple industry research. I've read everything I can find that you and the Proctor folks have published. I look forward to the release of the sanitation study and more research about 3/16 tubing on vacuum.