Remote Sap Pumping

[OneLegJohn]

What are the best practices for pushing sap out of a remote sugarbush? Only vacuum available at the tank. This is a new application and looking for the most reliable technology without having to deal with gas engines.

We are bringing vacuum from one ravine to another ravine to start a 1500 tap operation from scratch. We have enough CFM's to drop in a tank and releaser. We are looking for insight on how to push the sap out with an automatic float set-up. Is there such a thing? Is there a 12V option with solar recharge? Is there a sap transfer pump that operates on vacuum?

About 50 foot of rise and a distance of 2000 feet downhill.

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[VT_K9]

The concerns with an automatic float might be freezing and how long to thaw. We have two "sap shacks" and unfortunately both are down hill from the sugarhouse. One is 750' all down hill and the other is 1200' away with about 8-900' down hill. Both rises are about 60'. We use 1 1/2" blk poly to pump from the 750' side and will be installing 2" blk poly to pump from the 1200' side. The 750' run will leave about 75 gallons of sap in the line when pumping is done. We haul that out in a cube tank on forks on the tractor. The other side is expected to leave about 115 gallons of sap in the line when pumping is done. We will haul that out the same way. Smaller pump line will result in less sap left behind, but take a lot longer. The 2" pump and line will move almost 2x the sap the 1 1/2" pump and line will. We have pumps at each station and the pumps can be moved to the other station if one fails.

Each station has a small solar panel which charges a 12v battery and we use that to run the monitoring system for the tank depth. We will add a couple 12 v flood lights at each area to help with nighttime work. I would think it would take quite the system to run a pump effectively. Plus a good design to leave it low maintenance.

Good luck,

Mike

[maple flats]

I know nothing about them, but I think it is Lapierre who offers a vacuum powered transfer pump.

[maple flats]

I just checked, Lapierre does offer 3 choices of vacuum powered pumps. Click on the performance chart on their site to help you decide if one would be feasible for what you need. It looks like they require plenty of vacuum.

[DrTimPerkins]

Here is the performance chart Dave was referring to.

http://www.equipementsderabliere.elapierre.com/down/gestion/groupeproduit/84/files/2.pdf