I've moved to Tennessee and I'm no longer making syrup. I have tried to help folks with RO over the years. I am starting to look at the forum again and will try to respond to private messages. Good...
Type: Posts; User: bowhunter
I've moved to Tennessee and I'm no longer making syrup. I have tried to help folks with RO over the years. I am starting to look at the forum again and will try to respond to private messages. Good...
Did you measure the pH? It sounds like you did. RO membranes are very sensitive to pH and temperature. As a general rule the pH should be 12 or less during cleaning and the temperature below 114F...
Not quiet enough information to give you any advice but a couple of points:
1. The filmtec membranes are fine in sap service.
2. When you change either the pump capacity or membrane capacities or...
There won't be much rain water in the buckets if they're covered. If not you will probably have slightly more inches of rain in the bucket than it rained if the buckets are tapered. If it rain 2...
I just finished my 2020 season. This year did not go very smoothly but I made plenty of syrup. I tapped my trees on February 16. I was coming down with the flu so I didn't get to run the buckets for...
If you could send me a sketch of your set up I might be able to help. Send it pm in case I don't check the forum that often. I'm finishing my season and cleaning up. Generally speaking you should use...
I've just finished my season and cleaned my membrane for storage. I was able to improve my permeation rate by about 10% by doing a citric acid wash after doing two soap or lye washes. I measured the...
You have the concept right. Using permeate to rinse through the membrane allows a lot of the stuff....minerals and high molecular weight sugars to dissolve back into the rinse thus cleaning the...
Guys this is based on science not just someone's opinion. The sugar concentrates in the liquid phase and the water concentrates in the ice phase as the sap either freezes or thaws. Dave Klish is...
Freezing is a good way to remove part of the water. Let them sit out and thaw overnight. Boil the liquid and throw the remaining ice away. The ice phase will contain almost no sugar.
Probably should contact Next Gen directly. I don't know anything specifically about this unit so I would hesitate to give you advice. Do you have one needle valve or two? If you have two you should...
Here's my comments. Plumb the membranes is series. One of the keys to keeping the membrane clean for a long time is keeping the flow high enough. The 330 GPH pump will not pump enough to meet that...
Cold sap can reduce the permeation rate by as much as 50% just because of the temperature. Also as the sugar content goes higher the permeation rate decreases at the same pressure. You have to use...
If the pressure changes with changes in the concentrate valve and if the flows also change when the concentrate valve is adjusted then there is likely some restriction in the recirculation line. The...
I run with an elevated feed tank for my ProCon pump and it works fine. You do have to change the feed filter more often because you don't have a pressurized feed system. The ProCon pumps in this size...
Absolutely do not put back pressure on the permeate line. You can destroy your membrane. A number of people on this forum have over pressured the permeate side when they made a mistake on the...
You could use a small ProCon Rotary Vane pump but I wouldn't run it unattended at night. These pumps are extremely durable and easy to use but you can't run them dry. That's why most folks use the...
The key to keeping the membranes clean for as long as is practical is by keeping the flow out of the last membrane above 3 gpm for a 4 inch membrane and keeping the recovery below 15% on each...
The target recovery is 15% per membrane maximum. You have two membranes in series so the overall system recovery is about 27%. That should give you a total flow through the first membrane of...
To estimate your performance I assumed you're using Filmtec Tech membranes. These membranes work well and are commonly used in maple sap processing. A 4 inch MES membrane would probably give similar...
I just cleared out some old messages.
Membranes are generally sized on water at 77 F. I'd be happy to send you some sizing information for sap but first I need to know what you want to do. I can recommend the membrane, pump and flow...
I don't know if anyone has ever done a soap or acid wash on these home RO membranes. My recollection is that people were just replacing the membranes once the performance deteriorated. I would...
I would contact Smoky Lake if it's not performing as expected. If there's an issue they deserve the chance to fix it. If the oil burner is burning clean with no smoke, it should perform pretty much...
The least expensive option obviously is a better pan on a block arch. A small evaporator such as a 1/2 pint or one of Bill Mason's evaporator's will be much more efficient (air tight) than the block...