Arch construction differences

[shortround]

A couple of hours ago, I had no idea what a sugar bush was. Now I do. Same as a sorghum patch except it's maple trees.
Looking through this forum, I've discovered that a bunch of knowledge/talent is here, and I'm want to tap into it. Lots of differences but also lots of similarities.
I'm setting up to cook sorghum syrup next fall. As with the maple cookers, getting rid of the excess water is what we're after.
I want to cook the juice in a batch pan with approximately a 130 gallon juice capacity. This should yield from ~13 to 20 gallons of syrup per cooking.
I understand that water evaporation is a factor of juice surface area, something around 2 - 3 gallons per hour per square foot.
The old sugar cane and sorghum arches had an upward slope out of the firebox that then tapered downward to the stack. This was to concentrate the heat into the the forward third of the pan. These pans were of a continous evaporator design. I'm curious about the heating characteristics of a maple syrup arch as it may apply to a batch pan?
How many of you have built your own arches? What firebox sizes are you using? What about flue area and stack diameter?
I'm iced in. In Arkansas, that's anything that makes the road surface slick. I'm going nuts because I won't go out on the road with those fools that can't drive to begin with. With that said, I am logging off and getting a cold beverage.
Looking forward to the info swap.

icedininArkansasShortround out

[Haynes Forest Products]

Shortround I dont think there is a differance in the concept of boiling off as much water as possible and as quickly as possible. There might be a differance in the end result and with maple syrup for some odd reason unknown to me is the lighter the color to higher price paid for it. The longer you boil maple sap the darker it gets and I might add the better it tastes but thats just me and all my friends and neighbors. So a continous type evaporator is important to keep drawing off the finished syrup with as little time in the pans as possible. Batch type evaporators will give you darker syrup because the first sap in and the last sap in all blend together until its concentrated. My question to you is does color matter in the final product and if so is lighter better or worse. I know that the sorgum that I have had was a nice yellow color. I ran the numbers and if you boil 130 gallons of juice and get 15/20 gallons of finished product that is a high consentrate to start with. To make maple syrup on average we need to boil 680 gallons of sap to get that much finished syrup. Time is money and the longer it takes to boil the more fuel used and time spent. What type of fuel do you use. If you go read other threads you will see that alot of us have made alot of our own equipment so yes I built my own arch out of steel and it sounds like the same concept as you discribed. What is the sugar content of finished Sorgum? Does the juice spoil and if so how fast in the warmer temps due to the season. I dont see a differance in the boiling prosses that differs from maple production. You could use a RO to concentrate even more before the boiling prosses.