Yummy's continuous stripper

[LWTCS]

My calcs were predicated upon scaling down the requirements established and proven for a much larger feed rate.

408 watts per gallon/per hour ended up being just fine.
Stevea theorized 418 watts per gallon. What ever.

The 4" handles 35 gph (132 lph) just fine and the low wines distillate comes over at 50%

[Bolverk]

Hey Yummy, finance minister ever release funds for the peristaltic pump?

[Yummyrum]

Hey Yummy, finance minister ever release funds for the peristaltic pump?

Yes , but the one I want is on Aliexpress I think and I’m always nervous , so I have procrastinated .

[Bolverk]

Yeah, I've had more bad experiences than good with Ali...

Which one are you looking at?

[Yummyrum]

Yeah, I've had more bad experiences than good with Ali...

Which one are you looking at?

There are plenty of 500ml/h at cheap prices .But I've worked out I would want around 1L/h which makes it harder to find .
This one looks like it might do the job but my gut is telling me it's not gunna cut it .
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3288991 ... ec%21AU%21

This one looks more robust and is rated at 2L/h so likely going to last longer even though its a hell of a lot dearer .
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000709 ... ec%21AU%21

LOL ,I just found this one but it sounds too good to be true .
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... 1AU%21%21A

[Bolverk]

That middle one doesn't look too bad.

Haha, yeah that last one does look to good good to be true.

This is the one on Amazon I've been eyeballing


As I've been diving back into this, I reread a few threads over on ADI and there are some guys using metering dosing pumps. Have you looked into these yet?

[Yummyrum]

Woow that looks good and within budget .
I only glanced at ones with built in controllers but they all seemed to be about $1k and up .

I like the one you linked to because it has external control so it can be controlled by a PID or micro .

Hadn’t looked at Amazon . For some reason I thought they didn’t deliver ti Australia , but apparently they do .

I think I might get that one .

[Bolverk]

It's the only high flow one that I've been able to find thats not extremely expensive... i figured 1.5lpm is way more than ill need but it's fully adjustable from 0 all the way up so no matter what it should cover any upgrades.

Oh nice! I didn't realize but hell there you go!

I've got a few more 4" spool parts to get first, but I'll be buying it soon.

[tommysb]

I've ordered and used Kamoer brand from AliExpress and they're legit. I guess it doesn't matter whether you order from Ali or Amazon, should both be fine.

What about running smaller pumps in parallel? I've done that. I never measured whether it was actually double the flow rate than a single one (at the same speed), but I have the idea that on a peristaltic pump, it should be, since each rotation of the pump displaces a fixed amount of volume. At the time I think it seemed more economical for me to buy two smaller ones than a large one for the flow rate I wanted,

[Bolverk]

Here's another option I'm looking at...

https://www.blichmannengineering.com/ri ... -pump.html

I've spoken with their tech support and it can safely be dialed down to 0. Yes, you loose the precision control of a peristaltic but if you use a victaulic balancing valve on the output you should be able to really fine tune things. Plus you have a pump capable of 7gpm for other uses.

[still_stirrin]

Here's another option I'm looking at...

https://www.blichmannengineering.com/ri ... -pump.html

I've spoken with their tech support and it can safely be dialed down to 0. Yes, you loose the precision control of a peristaltic but if you use a victaulic balancing valve on the output you should be able to really fine tune things. Plus you have a pump capable of 7gpm for other uses.

With a re-circ loop, you can regulate a centrifugal pump to a fine degree. A re-circ loop uses a valve (butterfly or ball work best) in a small circuit branch between the pump’s discharge flowing back to the suction side. Keep the circuit piping at the same diameter as the inlet piping size for best results.

This will allow the pump to work normally without worry of overheating from fighting the back-pressure.
ss

[Bolverk]

This is a low pressure pump with an internal flow valve, so no external bypass is needed.

[Yummyrum]

Bolverk
I initially was using a Magnetic drive pump similar to that but was having problems with it . When the beer was getting almost to boiling point on the bottoms HX , it would start vaporising in packets .The pump didn’t seem to be able to cope with the expansion that was happening and then it would feed erratically .

This is why I thought about getting a Positive displacement pump as it would just keep moving the beer and vapour packets through to the top beer feed.

[Bolverk]

A peristaltic would definitely help things keep moving forward but a check valve would too.

This is only my theory, I'm entirely prepared to be wrong... just spitballing here.

Could you have too much HX if you're boiling that much in the line? Maybe increased flow (would obviously require more heat and more plates for stripping) or a shorter HX to limit dwell in the in HX?

[Yummyrum]

You may be right on both accounts . Regardless , my pump just couldn't keep things moving along .Once it started to get close to boil in the HX , it was all over . The beer wouldn’t go up to the feed and so it would get hotter and hotter exacerbating the problem .
The hotter the beer feed the better ,but it was just another hurdle in the whole Continuous still saga to jump .

Anyway I looked at that Controlled Parasteltic you linked to a few weeks ago , but Amazon wanted over $400 landed in Aus so thats a nogo

Still haven’t ruled it out though . The alternative is buying a pump and adding a controller board , but then you still have to house it . So maybe at the end of the day I might just have to reapply for a bigger budget and bite the Bullet .

[Bolverk]

Ouch!

I don't know that boiling in the line is/was the problem.

If you look at Cothermans old setup he was splitting his beer feed and it was boiling on both sides (bottoms and vapor) you can see it in the lines. Plus your top plate / disbursement plate? Should have regulated to surging to the packed column below.



It may be that a simple check valve would solve the problem...

[drmiller100]

You may be right on both accounts . Regardless , my pump just couldn't keep things moving along .Once it started to get close to boil in the HX , it was all over . The beer wouldn’t go up to the feed and so it would get hotter and hotter exacerbating the problem .
The hotter the beer feed the better ,but it was just another hurdle in the whole Continuous still saga to jump .

Anyway I looked at that Controlled Parasteltic you linked to a few weeks ago , but Amazon wanted over $400 landed in Aus so thats a nogo

Still haven’t ruled it out though . The alternative is buying a pump and adding a controller board , but then you still have to house it . So maybe at the end of the day I might just have to reapply for a bigger budget and bite the Bullet .

I had the exact same issues. It's all fun and games until the beer starts boiling in the lines and the pressure sky rockets.

I tried a lot of things and a centrifugal pump will not work. It needs a positive displacement pump that is pressure insensitive.

And will pass the fine solids in all beers. Like a periostalicpump. Or gear pump that cleans.

[Yummyrum]

Thanks DRmiller. Pleased I wasn’t tripp’n then

[Yummyrum]

(Sorry to those that may have seen my similar post on CCSC .)

Well I have bitten the bullet .
Finally decided on this pump .
I know I can get it heaps cheaper on aliexpress , but my online shopping foo just doesn’t feel comfortable .

Although I was needing around 500mls /min and future proofing at 1l/min , this unit will do up to 2l/hour but it is only for short periods . And they suggest running at way less than max speed . So I’m confident it will run at the speed I need and last OK .

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B0BRM ... prod_image

Been tossing up between Stepper drive or DC motor . bluc asked me about potential explosion in a Parasteltic pump and it convinced me that Stepper was the way to go.

Alas driver requirements are a bit more tricky than a simple DC motor . So I’ve also had to get a Stepper drive module .

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B0CCS ... prod_image

And these need a pulse to drive them . One pulse per step , the faster the pulses , the faster it steps ….. and pumps . I can’t be stuffed with programming a Audiono or the likes at this stage so just got a simple on/off , forward /reverse and speed control to control the Driver Module. Later on i can go all fancy if I want to .

Note : this unit SMC01 is purely a controller that generates pulses to feed to a Stepper Driver .
There is a very similar unit SMC02 which looks the same from the front , but has the driver built in .
I chose the former so that I can get straight of the blocks but upgrade the controller to an Auduino or something at a later date to get feed back from a temp sensor or the likes .

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B0CKS ... prod_image

And of course a power supply .

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B0BB5 ... 7437738862

Be a few weeks until it all turns up .

[Bolverk]

Nice! I'm super excited for you to start up the column again!

[LWTCS]

Centrifugal works just fine with PID loops dialed in.

[Yummyrum]

Centrifugal works just fine with PID loops dialed in.

One problem I had with using mine was it seemed to beat the bejesus out of the wash and degass it right there in the pump . Pump got more and more filled with CO2 and stopped working ….until I burped it . Worked perfectly fine with 8-10% low-wines testing but not so good with real beer .

Maybe it’s typical Home distillers style centrifugal pump verses better ones that pro distillers can afford … I dunno

[drmiller100]

Following. I hope this works!!!

[LWTCS]

Centrifugal works just fine with PID loops dialed in.

One problem I had with using mine was it seemed to beat the bejesus out of the wash and degass it right there in the pump . Pump got more and more filled with CO2 and stopped working ….until I burped it . Worked perfectly fine with 8-10% low-wines testing but not so good with real beer .

Maybe it’s typical Home distillers style centrifugal pump verses better ones that pro distillers can afford … I dunno

They can definitely be a pita because they don't self prime.
Too many bends up stream from the suction can cause cavitation also. Straight shot is best.

[Bolverk]

How's your continuous coming along?
You ever get your pump up and running?

[Yummyrum]

Yes and no Bolverk .
I did get it working but then thought I’d be all clever and made my own Arduino controller instead of the one I bought so that I could have it display Litres per min flow rate . I figured if I could use an Arduino to control the Stepper , I had a mechanism whereby I could monitor head temp and adjust feed rate , something I couldn’t do with the little off the shelf controller I bought .

Heres a couple of pics of when I was creating the code .I tried a whole bunch of Stepper libraries and they all had one issue or other . So then went down the Arduino interrupt rabbit hole before getting the Step, Direction and on/off signals all sorted .

In this pic , Run shows how many liters of wash have been pumped , while the feed rate is displayed below . CW is Clock wise . If CCw is selected , then the pump runs backwards and the wash counter counts down . Probably not needed when running but hey .
Also a stop button . Then there are Menu options to adjust the usual stepper parameters .

Then the big moment of actually connecting it to the stepper driver and motor . Then out to the shed to actually pump some water and test the calibration routine . That was actually very accurate . Although the stepper is fairly linear as regards RPM verses Flow , it does taper off . The calibration routine meant that I could set it at the typical feed rate I’d be using and know hiw much wash had gone through .

Aaaaannnnnnd , that is where it stopped . Had another intervention from the time and finance minister and project was shelved again

[Bolverk]

Looks great, man!

Ooof, we'll i can't argue with that. I hope to see you back at this project soon. With that pump, you should have great control

[Yummyrum]

Hoping so Bolverk .

Funny thing is , one of my main interests in this continuous was for Rum and now I’ve gone down the dual retort road , It’s not that urgent , however I do make a lot if Neutral and that still takes time I don’t have .

[Bolverk]

Hoping so Bolverk .

Funny thing is , one of my main interests in this continuous was for Rum and now I’ve gone down the dual retort road , It’s not that urgent , however I do make a lot if Neutral and that still takes time I don’t have .

Fair, they produce substantially different products.

Arroyo has an article on the production of heavy and light rums from a single heavy fermentation. In this he used a continuous stripper for the initial run and hybrid column batch for the spirit run. You could do something similar instead of the spirit run being high rectification yours could be double retort... just a thought