Lapierre 1000 Series 2 Membrane Concentrate Question

[Goshenboy]

Hello all,

First off this is my first post, and I want to say thanks to all for all the great information and discussions on this site!

This is my second season doing maple syrup on my own. Last year I purchased a 2x6 Forced Draft Smoky Lake evaporator and ended making 32 gallons of Syrup off of 215 taps (very warm weather, not an ideal sap season). Still, with the warm weather and less than normal sap flow, I found myself overwhelmed with boiling time.

This year, to combat very long boiling times, I recently purchased and received a new Lapierre 1000 series RO with 2 membranes. It has a 3/4 feed pump, and a 2hp High Pressure pump with built in recirculation.

My question is, can I expect to get 8 brix concentrate from 2 brix incoming sap at a concentrate flow of around 1.25 gallons per minute? Will my RO be able to handle the higher concentration without fouling membranes?

The membranes that came with the unit are Filmtech NF90-4040. The pressures that the RO is rated for is much greater than 300 psi, but what PSI do you find your rigs running at?

My evaporator boils around 70-75 gallons per hour, so that's how I got around 1.25gpm of concentration rate. I also plan on having around 375-400 taps on tubing this year.

Thanks again!

[ecp]

This is always a fun question to talk about because there are so many variables. I believe you will be fine with getting 70 to 75 gallons per hour at 8 to 10% if you have 2% coming in on most days. The really cold days you might be stretching it but you can always let is run for a hour to give you a little head way. As far as how hard you can push it being clogging or fouling your membranes up that also depends on variables so i will just tell you that if you keep the sap fresh and do not let is sit around and you clean you membranes every use (and slush with lots of water before and after a wash) they should not have any issues. minerals are different by zone so you may find yourself doing acid washes from time t time to improve performance. Lastly my personal set up is that the feed pump runs around 100psi and the high pressure side i using run around 400 psi.