So i purchased an FFE from china awhile back and we were shipped a oil heated boiler with it for heating the evaporator. The heater has a design and instructions to run it at 300c and we were told that we needed to run this 45 kw electric boiler at max. So in our area, it would cost a small fortune to run 3 phase to our location to handle just this boiler.
My question is can we run a propane fired boiler around 200000 btu to match the 45 kw heater? Also would love to hear others input on heating and cooling temps on their FFE,s because i really thought that we should be around the area of 75c-90c to seperate crude in the FFE.
What’s inside of that box, a direct knock off of the Delta Sep design as well?
If yes, you need to cool the liquid ring pump FYI.
300c is not the right temperature. 75c is closer.
6 Likes
Also, that Alicat (or cheap Chinese knockoff) flow meter will quickly foul, an inline filter is cheap insurance
7 Likes
Just the liquid ring pump is all. Thanks for the tip. i had a feeling my temps shouldn’t be so high.
1 Like
If you distilled etoh in a rotovap or any distillation unit you’d know the temps are 30°c to 78°c … Js.
6 Likes
You can 100% do this
Make sure your water heater gets hot enough
Most house hold water heaters only hit 140f max
5 Likes
This is a FFE, and im sure if u ran it fast enough and had perfect solution distribution above the heat exhangers, i think 300c could work haha But yould most likely just make a bomb 
10 Likes
the temperature of the evaporating solvent in the FFE is dependent on the pressure. At atmospheric, it will be pretty close to 78C if you’re running ethanol.
setting the boiler “as high as it goes”, 300C (?!?) will give more 78C vapor than setting it at 150C. you’ve got your HX area, HX fluid flow rate, and the delta T across your HX that all factor into making this work. it is certainly possible that the OEM worked the math in such a fashion than the correct response IS 300C thermal transfer fluid…if you switch to a different heat source and/or heat transfer fluid, you may also need to change the flow rate to balance things out again.
any chance you could post the picture again? (broken)
5 Likes
HA! i believe your right. I just didn’t know on this unit to perhaps run it that high according to china;s specs. As i have always seen others using water as a medium and not heat transfer oil.
Thanks for your input. We were thinking of mounting a boiler on the outside of the building that could be adjustable up to 200 F to rid of a flame driven unit close to our FEE room. With the said info here in this thread, we might be able to just unwire a few of the elements in the electric one we have to drive down the amperage demand. There is 17- 3.2 kw elements in this beast…
1 Like
Id just go with the water/glycol mix and get an expansion tank if necessary.
Set to 200f and run it full speed and see how it goes.
Definitely disconnect some heaters if it doesnt fuck with the computer
The reason i say 200f cuz it looks like that whole column only has one inlet and outlet ur gonna lose alotta heat going up that column, if u can get an inline temp probe to see the temp (of ur transfer fluid) going out of ur column, and make sure its not above 170F at full throttle.
Did they say to run this under pressure or vac?
1 Like
You definitely caught me off track on my thinking. It states in the manual that it operates at <0.5mpa. When the heating temp is 300c, the operating pressure is only one seventy of the saturated vapor pressure of water. flow is 10m/h.
Yes! one outlet in and one out…It runs with a vacuum pump. So you recommend a mix and not full oil?
If u already have the oil use it, gives u more versatility. But if u dont, dont waste money and just go with the water mix. Worse case scenario u need a 1-3 gallon expansion tank, i did it for reassurance. But ive seen many not worry about the expansion and just plumb everything directly
1 Like
Depending on ur vac id lower my suggested values by 20F or so.
Flow is what? m/h? Idk what that means
1 Like
Thanks for your input as well. the unit has its own 20 gallon expansion tank and all the safety sensors as well. im just hoping i can replace just the heating unit with a gas fired unit to avoid paying my power company 40k to drop in power. i converted 45 kw over to BTU which comes out around 150,000. so im thinking of purchasing at least one that is around 200,000 to make up for the loss of efficiency if that makes any sense.
on the off chance that I’m not the only one using a browser that doesn’t grok .webp files…
um yeah, nope. don’t think you wanna run 300C silicone oil into that without exploring safer places first…
Edit: which might be as close as the manual for delta’s machine, which this looks uncannily similar to. @Kingofthekush420 might have delta’s operational parameters close at hand.
or one of the other folks discussing how to use one “off label” over here: Is it possible to Decarboxylate in Delta’s FFE45?
3 Likes
Thats what i was afraid of. I didn’t want to throw myself into the next state.lol
i have sent questions to the manufacture. .Awaiting feedback, but getting better answers here.
1 Like
cubic meters per hour i believe. China uses the metric system that i really dislike. Comes out to 4.4 gallons per minute.
Blockquote
Thanks for your info Cyclopath. ill ask @Kingofthekush420 what his perameters are and see if that will help.