Just picked up a corken t-91 and am weighing the options on cooling.
Im limited on power with only 200amp service of single phase
im trying find a balance between initial investment and savings on not relying on consumables
(chiller v dry ice)
increasing the effective ability of the compressor is my biggest concern
fyi my solvent tank sits at room temp and my collection is usualy 45c
i basically run for crude
any ideas, help, and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Blend is crucial what type of solvent do you run ?
70/30 n/p previous to buying the corken.
i can get pure isobutane or other blends probably. not interested in straight propane though.
The different boiling points of your solvents will be how you decide how much cooling power you need . Dry ice is your best option if you can get it for cheap . Chillers at your scale will cost as much as the corken or even more . How are you keeping up on vapor generation to feed that beast ? You want to use the same amount of KW of heating power and cooling power as a basic starting point then probably beef up the cooling side by an additional 30% to account for losses. This also depends does the pump fight well against back back or high psi on the recovery tank ? Then you could get away with less cooling power and just have a high psi on the solvent tank
I would switch to straight isobutane or nbutane and just use regular plain ice if you want to save cost since your running crude anyways
thats where im hoping to draw upon the knowledge of those that have gone before.
10k-20k for chiller coil combos is not unreasonable if it takes 100$-200 in dry ice a day to do the job.
powering said chiller could be a problem with limited amps available at only single phase
i havent turned the pump on yet to know how it responds to pumping into high tank temps.
i have a 14kw heater currently and will likely double it to generate the vapor
Works great hooked up to a tube n shell. 30 amps of current, 50 amp breaker. Haven’t used on a corken but have on a mvp150 with mad vapor production. Flip a switch and have instant condensing power.
Thank you goose. i really appreciate it. mind telling me what tube and shell your running? Had my eyes on exergy but wasnt positive on sizing etc. thanks again.
The large bhogart one. It’s like 6x36 I think.
200 total amps for what I’m assuming is 240V service to power your whole lab, or max 200A left to power the chiller?
Do you have a desired temperature target for your condenser or solvent?
IMO at a large enough scale for refrigerant compressors you’re way better off having 3 phase available, to get it you could always invest in a Phase Perfect Phase Perfect | 3 Phase Power Anywhere With Our Digital Phase Converter | Variable Frequency Drives and Digital Phase Converters | Phase Technologies or rotary phase converter to get 3 phase power. Either option will take a little power to run but vastly expand your equipment options. If you’re in or near Colorado I can give some in person advise on phase conversion since I’ve got quite a bit of experience with it.
Trying to run a chiller for that kind of load on single phase is a pretty rough situation. Using a phase converter is only going to eat into your power allowance and mess with your variable costs. You may want to look into using a smaller chiller with an ice bank depending on what kind of duty cycle you’re running.
That one does what 100#’s and he I remember the lil ones where 20 for the ones i was using.
What’s an ice bank?
Here are two documents that explain it. Basically, it’s a way to store thermal energy, commonly used to reduce peak loads
ice_storage_how_and_why_lessons_learned_17_garcia_coulard4.pdf (1.3 MB)