How much water can be removed?

[mol1jb]

Hey all,

So on a 4x40 membrane, how high of sugar content can you go before the membrane starts to plug? I want to remove as much water as possible and with my upgraded 330 procon pump I will be able to process sap much faster than last year, meaning multiple passes. I have a recirc line on the unit. I can give more info if that is needed to determine output.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

I use 3 4x40s and with recirculation i get to 10 sometimes 12%

[mol1jb]

I use 3 4x40s and with recirculation i get to 10 sometimes 12%

Do you find your membrane performance drop off at a certain conc %?

[maple flats]

The performance possible depends on several factors. Some of those are pressure and the particular membrane. The higher the pressure you can attain, the more water you can remove, but on the flip side, the higher the pressure to more heating the concentrate gets and this heat is not good. What pressure do you expect? I just looked at the specs on one Procon 330 which showed 250 PSI as max. I only checked the one. At 250 PSI you may well need to run maybe 3 passes, remember, each pass raises the temperature which increases the microbial activity. Keeping the concentrate cold is vital. The best way is to match your RO output to the evaporator evaporation rate. However many of us on a limited budget can't do that.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

Do you find your membrane performance drop off at a certain conc %?
yes usually after 8% pressure starts to climb and i would have to open up the concentrate needle valve to keep the pressure down and the flow up