Glycol chiller with dry ice assist reservoir

Hey there

Haven’t really introduced myself yet so this might as well be an intro:

I have been a longtime lurker on this forum and it has been such an amazing resource for me- I finally decided to join GLG and start posting more cause we got the go ahead to build out a hemp extraction lab- we were issued the first industrial hemp processors liscense in the state of wisconsin last year but did very little in the way of actual extraction- background of company: We have been making herbal medicine for many years and I have worked in an apothecary and on an organic herb farm for as long as I can remember - my mother Elizabeth is the president of the analytical research chapter of the AHG and has been extracting, manufacturing, and formulating complex herbal medicinal compounds for 35 years, she is also my business partner at Luminary Medicine Co.

I am currently in the midst of putting together all of my equipment and as y’all will be seeing I am a very DIY/engineering type of guy so I opted to build most of my equipment myself instead of shelling out 10x the cost of materials that most of these manufacturers ask.

Follow me on Instagram @vene.ficium for daily story posts but here is the beginning of my glycol chiller to power the labs condensers:

I found a used 23000btu ac unit that was previously used to cool a barn that had been converted into a pottery studio, it runs off of a nema 6-50 230V outlet which conveniently matches the plug of my 20L solvent pro rotovap- both of these should be fine to run off of a single 50amp breaker, I’ll be using a Y adapter to run them both off of a single outlet.

Removing the fan and housing took a few hours and a lot of careful grinding and cutting and figuring as to how to remove bolts and screws without damaging the bent copper but it was fairly simple- the concept is straightforward- immerse the chilling radiator into a coolant and insulate everything well.

I Purchased a 35gal fuel tank from eBay but they’re widely available at tractor supply as well for similar prices, this will be the coolant reservoir - I am planning on cutting a hole in the top and welding in a steel spool that will act as a dry ice slurry reservoir Incase my heat load becomes too high when running multiple processes at once- this can also be used to prechill ethanol for cryo-extraction. A 24inx 8in spool holds approx 4.75gal of liquid

The tank measures 24x24” and will be held inside a wooden box that has 2in of foam insulation on all sides.

There is room to add a second and possibly even a third chilling unit to this to increase cooling capacity- I have a compressor and cooling system I can remove from a commercial fridge/freezer that I have converted into a sausage curing chamber that I am considering putting in to this unit as added power if needed.

Here are some pics from today, I’ll add more as they come.

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Very good. I will be building my own glycol chiller as well. I’ve got a lead on a 36k btu window AC for 100 bucks lol

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That’s a great price - I paid $200 for this one

Update:

For those who use glycerine as a coolant liquid: biodiesel manufacturers cannot wait to get rid of their crude glycerine- I was looking at purchasing a 55gal drum for $750 but after combing my brain for a way to make it cheaper and researching biodiesel and soap production methods (I was fixin to make glycerine in house with used fryer oil and lye- DIY all the way!!)

I ended up contacting a biodiesel company within a few hours drive that will sell me a 55gal drum of (not food grade) glycerine for $25! This is a waste product for these folks and it’s def not safe for consumption but I have no issues using it to cool my rotovaps coils- call your local biodiesel factory today!!

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What model? Got a link?

I just found it on Facebook marketplace.

It’s a friederick 36k

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I’m doing the same thing

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how’s compliance with all of the diy solutions?
do you need fire marshall/electrical inspection for your facility?

They’d love it lol

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Way ahead of ya- Everything is being installed in an XP shipping container- route in conduits from the outside for anything that’s not XP rated and have a raspberry pi set up to control and monitor.

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LLE of Glycerine from biodiesel waste

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Check the vid she lives and breathes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwIE-2ZH5US/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1j8zv24htch61

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Nicely done buddy let’s see how she does with some load on her

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firing er up asap in the morning!

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Tooker down to -25c and evaporated off 10l h2o hot and fast to test and the ending temp was -14c

Shut off at 2 am came back at 11am and the coolant was still at -6c - I think we have a winner!!!

Just need to throw some more paint down here and there but this will do quite nicely.

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Perfect. You can use some Lowe’s pipe insulation on those lines to gain a few degrees lower

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What material did you spray/paint on the condenser cooling in/out lines?

I think that’s condensation freezing onto the pipes, not a foam insulation

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That’s right- I’ll post pics of the full setup tonight we are almost live

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