Cooling Water - Recirculate or Waste Experiment

[Andrew_90]

So lets for a moment discount those who have large tanks for cooling purposes.

Yesterday I ran two stripping runs of equal size in the same still to prove a point.

The first run was using a 50l tank and recirculating the water to the Liebig with a submersible pump. During the 90 minute stripping run id was necessary for me to replace at least half with fresh cold water no fewer than 4 times. This means that I started with 50l and, drained at least 100l which was refilled. So my total consumption was a minimum of 100l and I was left with the original 50l in the tank that could cool and be used again.

The second run was the following day expect this time I connected to a continuous fresh water supply and allowed the water to waste down the drain. During the process I measure the flow rate and it was 5l for every 7 minutes. The run duration was 90 minutes so 90/7*5 = 64l.

So my conclusions thus far are.

1. Small cooling tanks are inefficient as they do not have the thermal mass of a larger tanks, larger tanks would warm up but would not get hot during the duration of the run.
2. Without some form of intercooler, smaller cooling tanks are not that practical.
3. In the absence of and intercooler, reusable ice blocks can be employed to attenuate the temperature rise.
4. Without ice or an intercooler is it cheaper and more convenient to run to waste and an overall saving of 36l is achieved.

I have numerous 1.5l bottles filled with water in the freezer to conduct the next phase of the experiment. This would be a 50l tanks with cooling ice.

Any thoughts?