600 taps on vacuum
Lapierre mechanical Releaser
CDL electric releaser
2.5 x 10 CDL Venturi ( new for the 2024 season )
Home made modulating auto draw off
Homemade RO 2 x 4" membranes
CDL 16 x 16 bottler
Wesfab 7" filter press
Delaval 73 vacuum pumps
12 hives of bees
Do you have a brand for that flow meter? How does it hold up to that psi? Struggling finding one rated for that kind of preasure.
Last edited by cjf12; 04-05-2020 at 03:56 PM.
Scarlet Jewell Sugar Shack LLC
Sandstone, MN 55072
16 x 24 sugar shack
crescendo auto drawoff,
Home built ro with a Dow xle 4040 membrane.
1 1/2 hp motor on 220 drawing 8 amps
Gravity feed
300 taps on vacuum
2 x 6 Smokey Lake Corsair arch with blower and pans and preheater
1529 Massey Ferguson, Yamaha Wolverine
https://www.facebook.com/ScarletJewellSugarShack
Instagram. Mapleshack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOnmFMBgU10
Your flow meters are after the pressure, at that point they are open discharge. Even the recirculate is low pressure, it is feeding non pressurized flow to the high pressure feed inlet.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
I think I understand what you are saying. Should I be running a needle valve off the other high pressure side Of the membrane to the existing flow meter and then the outlet of the flow meter to the low pressure side intake of my pump.
I would use the valve on the top of the membrane to control outlet pressure.
Scarlet Jewell Sugar Shack LLC
Sandstone, MN 55072
16 x 24 sugar shack
crescendo auto drawoff,
Home built ro with a Dow xle 4040 membrane.
1 1/2 hp motor on 220 drawing 8 amps
Gravity feed
300 taps on vacuum
2 x 6 Smokey Lake Corsair arch with blower and pans and preheater
1529 Massey Ferguson, Yamaha Wolverine
https://www.facebook.com/ScarletJewellSugarShack
Instagram. Mapleshack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOnmFMBgU10
If you are installing a recircirc line you will need 2 needle valves
Concentrate Line comming off your membrane goes to a tee with 1 side going to your concentrate needle valve then other side of needle valve goes to flow meter. Other side of flow meter heads to your concentrate tank.
Recirc line connects to the tee off the concentrate line from the membrane. Goes to a needle valve. Other side of needle valve goes to a flow meter. Other side of flow meter heads to you inlet of your hp pump where you will need a tee as well.
600 taps on vacuum
Lapierre mechanical Releaser
CDL electric releaser
2.5 x 10 CDL Venturi ( new for the 2024 season )
Home made modulating auto draw off
Homemade RO 2 x 4" membranes
CDL 16 x 16 bottler
Wesfab 7" filter press
Delaval 73 vacuum pumps
12 hives of bees
I find recirculating back to my sap tank not a big deal. I start my RO after I truck in the first load of sap. I set my pressure about 300psi and concentrate flow of 5gpm. By the time I have everything trucked back ( 3 of 4 loads ) the sap is up to 8 to 10%. I then tighten down the needle valve to about 13 to 14%. While the head tank is filling I drain the permeate from my syrup pan and pump the sweet back in. By the time that is done I have about 150 gallons in my head tank and start boiling.
First introduced to making maple syrup in 1969
Making syrup every year since 1979
3 x 10 oil fired
Revolution syrup and max flue pan
Almost 1300 taps total with 900 on high vacuum
Bought first Marcland drawoff in 1997, still going strong.
I added a recirc line to my Waterguys single-post RO for this year and love it. Previously, I recirculated back into the truck tank until it was sweet enough, then pumped overhead to my head tank on one final pass. It took around 2 hours to concentrate my typical 200 gallons, before I could start my boil. With internal recirc, I can control my RO output to 8 brix and light the match within 15 minutes of starting the RO. This was a game-changer for me this year. A single post at 8 brix output keeps up pretty good with my 25 gph boil rate. Limiting concentrate to 8 brix lets me go the whole season doing rinses only, then I do soap wash only at end of the season. Works well on a small scale (~50 gallons syrup per season). At 8 brix, you're pulling out 75% of the water. When I go to 12 brix (~82% water removed) or higher I need to do frequent washes. To me, 75% of water removed and 82% are about the same number, so why make more work for yourself? Same thing goes for those high-brix systems... 40 brix (95% of water removed) is really only marginally better than 16 brix (88% of water removed) when you look at it from a water removal perspective. Both are way better than the alternative (raw sap).
Ok, off soap box now.
The only "gotcha" i ran into when I added the recirc line was that my original concentrate flowmeter was too big. The 0.5 gpm of 8% that I make was not enough to raise the float, so I put a cheapo one from amazon inline with my head-tank feed line.
Boulder Trail Sugaring
150 Taps on Vacuum
Homemade 20"x40" Hybrid Pan - 15 gph
Homemade Steamaway - 10 gph
Waterguys single-post RO
I don't think you should be looking at this just from the stand point of water removal. While going from 8% to 12% is only 7% increase in the amount of water removed it is a 48% increase in the amount of syrup made per hour at your 25 GPH rate. Going from 16% to 40% is still only a 7% increase in the amount of water removed but a 150% increase in the amount of syrup made per hour.
First introduced to making maple syrup in 1969
Making syrup every year since 1979
3 x 10 oil fired
Revolution syrup and max flue pan
Almost 1300 taps total with 900 on high vacuum
Bought first Marcland drawoff in 1997, still going strong.
The nice thing about a recirc line with a needle valve is you can close it if you don’t like it or want to use it.
Like I said. I’ve recirc’d sap back into the tank before but I’ve had way better results personally and spent a lot less time cleaning my membrane using the recirc line.
600 taps on vacuum
Lapierre mechanical Releaser
CDL electric releaser
2.5 x 10 CDL Venturi ( new for the 2024 season )
Home made modulating auto draw off
Homemade RO 2 x 4" membranes
CDL 16 x 16 bottler
Wesfab 7" filter press
Delaval 73 vacuum pumps
12 hives of bees