Steam Pipe Pre-Evaporator

[lowryd]

I am looking to speed up evaporation rate and utilize steam from flue pan. Local shop is encouraging me to try their system whereby steam is funnelled from steam hood into a series of pipes ( about 1-2 inch diameter). Cold sap is then essentially dripped or very lightly flowed over the outside of the steam heated pipes in a very thin stream.

Apparently the system actually not only heats the sap but actually evaporates some of the water off.

Anyone every built /bought one of these or seen one work?
Thanks

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I'm pretty sure this is called a piggyback system. I've been told that they are excellent.

[JoeJ]

I purchased a 3' x 10' Steamaway from Leader Evaporator 10 or 12 years ago. (Back then the list price was $6,945. and now it is $8,996.)It was an extremely good investment. I would not go without it now. The Steamaway increased my evaporation rate by 60 gallons an hour, increased the incoming cold sap temperature to 195 - 200 degrees and produces a lot of hot water.

The only draw back of a Steamaway is that it is another piece of equipment to keep clean and you should clean it daily.

Joe

[Sugarmaker]

lowryd,
I did build a Steamaway, (Water Reduction Unit= WRU, thread on the build on years ago) it is not exactly like you described. Mine has 20 gallons of sap bulling over the hot tubes with air causing the bubbles. It works pretty well to make 2% sap into 3% sap using the steam from the rear pan. They are not cheap to buy. I would recommend that you look hard at R.O.'s first.
Regards,
Chris

[JoeJ]

After reading Sugarmaker's post, I decided to look up some production numbers to see how my first 300 gph RO effected my production

2004 raw sap-----boiled 19 times-----boiled for 74.5 hrs-----used 523 gal of oil-----made 109 gal of syrup-----used 4.75 gal of oil per gal of syrup-----made 1.5-2 gal syrup per hour

2006 RO sap------boiled 20 times-----boiled for 34.5 hrs-----used 241 gal of oil-----made 215 gal of syrup-----used 1.12 gal of oil per gal of syrup-----made 6.25 gal syrup per hour

add steam away and bigger RO

2019 RO sap----- boiled 25 times-----boiled for 61 hrs------ used 427 gal of oil-----made 1283 gal of syrup----used .33 gal of oil per gal of syrup------ made 21 gal syrup per hour

I guess that the choice of RO or steam away would depend on what the local shop is going to charge for their WRU and what the additional evaporation rate is. Otherwise, if I was going to buy a Leader Steamaway for my 3' x 10' evaporator, I would probably go for the RO first. The RO would save 3.63 gal of oil per gal of syrup made over boiling raw sap. Of course, all this is based on oil usage and not wood. If you burned wood, you would see a huge drop in wood consumption going from boiling raw sap to RO'ed sap.

Joe

[lowryd]

lowryd,
I did build a Steamaway, (Water Reduction Unit= WRU, thread on the build on years ago) it is not exactly like you described. Mine has 20 gallons of sap bulling over the hot tubes with air causing the bubbles. It works pretty well to make 2% sap into 3% sap using the steam from the rear pan. They are not cheap to buy. I would recommend that you look hard at R.O.'s first.
Regards,
Chris

Thanks for the input. do you have any pictures of your steam pipe + air bubbler system that you would be comfortable sharing?

[Sugarmaker]

lowryd,
Its all on here in a old thread. Using the search function you should be able to find it. Was like 10 years ago. Wow time flies! I will see if I can find it but not sure I can make a link work?

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?7335-WRU-in-process&highlight=water+reduction+unit

This was built in 2009. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Chris