400 gpm RO

[carls47807]

Parallel or series will give you the same flow rate (gallons per hour). Series will allow the batch to flow across all three membranes, which reduces fouling and helps keep the membranes flushed. There is no benefit to a parallel configuration in these little systems.

Running a series system from 2-4% will be the same flow rate as running a parallel system from 2-4%. With a series system, you can run the water a little faster than the concentrate (but you wouldn't have to), and you could get a higher single pass concentration with less likelihood of fouling membranes (than a parallel system). Each 400gpd membrane will pass 4 gallons of water per hour at sap temp and 100psi (less than 100psi is not really satisfactory).

The aquatec 8800 is really only capable or running up to 600-800 gpd of membranes. The flow rate at 100psi is only around 16gph. The 8855 series could run three. Plan on about 24gph with 3 400gpd membranes and a sufficient pump (making 12gph of concentrate and 12gph of permeate). If you get to 150psi you might be able to do a little better (but the 8800 will probably only make 80-100psi with three membranes).

[Tuckeradams2012]

Parallel or series will give you the same flow rate (gallons per hour). Series will allow the batch to flow across all three membranes, which reduces fouling and helps keep the membranes flushed. There is no benefit to a parallel configuration in these little systems.

Running a series system from 2-4% will be the same flow rate as running a parallel system from 2-4%. With a series system, you can run the water a little faster than the concentrate (but you wouldn't have to), and you could get a higher single pass concentration with less likelihood of fouling membranes (than a parallel system). Each 400gpd membrane will pass 4 gallons of water per hour at sap temp and 100psi (less than 100psi is not really satisfactory).

The aquatec 8800 is really only capable or running up to 600-800 gpd of membranes. The flow rate at 100psi is only around 16gph. The 8855 series could run three. Plan on about 24gph with 3 400gpd membranes and a sufficient pump (making 12gph of concentrate and 12gph of permeate). If you get to 150psi you might be able to do a little better (but the 8800 will probably only make 80-100psi with three membranes).

Great info carls47807, really appreciate the feedback. If I am trying to match my 15-20 gph rig, how could I successfully build a system that would process that even if it were at a lower concentrate level? Maybe multiple pumps and 4 membranes? Because I am a weekend warrior unless we get a really big run and I go up mid-week, my RO has to do a fairly good job of keeping up. I could mix it obviously with regular sap, and maybe that's the answer, but if I at least wanted to take off half the water what would be your suggestion?

Thanks!

Tucker

[carls47807]

You could run two aquatec 8800 pumps, with 2 membranes on each (two separate systems basically). RO Bucket (me, but I am not soliciting), sells a 40gph booster pump that pairs well with 3 membranes. Also have a 60gph pump that can run up to 5 membranes. Again, each membrane will get you 8gph. Hope this helps!

[Muddy Bottoms]

Take a look at Mattatuckmadnessmaple.

He has a lot of useful info on these small systems. He is a member on here, so you can probably find it using the search engine on here. I think his user name is something like hubador.

[Sugar Bear]

Take a look at Mattatuckmadnessmaple.He

He has a lot of useful info on these small systems. He is a member on here, so you can probably find it using the search engine on here. I think his user name is something like hubador.

Mattatuckmadness also uses series and discourages the use of parallel. I think he uses 5 or 6 150GPD in series.

Another benefit to series is that you can more effectively rotate membranes between runs from first to last down the line so you even out fowling of each membrane.

[tapdrinker]

Just a heads up on this topic. I found myself fighting for a faster flow rate. I used 4x 150gpd ro membranes in series. It was super duper slow. I then cut it in half basically. 2 in series x 2... still not fast enough... .so I did the one pass on each from pump to membrane and out with 4 pin pressure needles valves. What I needed to accomplish was - evaporation rate needed to equal processing -evap-rate. I was able to boil so fast my ro couldn't keep up. I'd sometimes not use ro at all. Some trees were giving me 5-6% so i didn't process it through RO. I'm a one man operation so I needed to tilt things to one and done methodology. Just an fyi I tried to keep the flow rates equal water to perm on each membrane. I might take the extra time to process my perm one more time before boiling but again-my starcat evaps so fast... It's almost pointless with only 60 taps. The starcat with blower evaps 11.5 gal per hour. On a good day I'll only collect about 90 gal of sap. On these days I'd be running ro and evaping that as fast as possible but I nearly always had to add sap to keep my boiling going and not burning the pan. Basic thing to keep in mind-evap rate vs ro process rate. I don't let my sap sit around and/or freeze. that's another issue altogether... ro outside will freeze overnight or in an unheated garage.