Hey guys.
Im considering upgrading to a AV30 FFE but had a question…
I have natural gas and really want to avoid using too much power, can anyone point me in the direction of cheap gas powered steamers or even something that uses oil…
Any cheapo options that would still keep good 45gal/hr throughput?
Probably some options there
If energy use is a prime concern, perhaps you should consider an alternative form of solvent recovery:
A natural gas hot water boiler with a recirculating pump will work just fine and can be had for reasonable cost.
We offer natural gas packages that will get you the throughput you’re looking for 
What is the average AV30 recovery rates when using heptane?
Hi. Still doing some research to decide purchase but i have a question for everyone…
If running an AV30 or similiar what is the ideal water volume input when utilizing well water as a cooling source?
Example: 100/L per minute at 5C
The well is 5-15C depending what I do…
Anyyyonnneee?
@SidViscous
@Kingofthekush420
@upstatehemper
@Thetetraguy
@greenbuggy
Thanks…
Cheers!!
Just looking for general data/experiences here…
I haven’t run an AV30 but IMO you want to put a thermocouple on the output temp of your recovered ethanol, and the output temp of your cooling loop. The hotter the ethanol comes out, the more work you’re going to have to do to cool it back down again. If your cooling loop is coming out lukewarm and your ethanol temp is coming hot, you could probably get a little bit better performance by upgrading to a higher flow pump. Ideally your cooling loop picks up enough heat to cool down your ethanol to a reasonably low temp (I like to see <25*C) and doesn’t puke much ethanol vapor into your vac pump or cold trap.
Great advice. You still running the bizzy beast FFE?
Still hoping someone can chime in regarding the use of well water and or water flow specs…
Yep, Bzb hex rack, albeit with more than a couple of modifications.
Not sure if this will help you but here goes:
We have a 2 HP centrifugal pump pushing water through a hydronic boiler and then our FFE’s hot side, 1.5" output port reduced down to 1" pipe where it plumbs in. Haven’t measured pressure on the hot side at the BZB input. Hydronic boiler is right next to the BZB, 1" hydraulic hose with 1" MPT fittings, probably about 12’ length between boiler output and FFE input. This is set at 105C.
On the cold side we run the factory 7.5 HP centrifugal that was fitted to our Chillking chiller, but this goes thru about 60’ of 1" PEX in each direction from the falling film.
At the cold input side of the FFE I have a cross with a gauge that normally registers about 45-50 PSI
On the cold side we sustain around 55F in the chiller tank depending on outside weather conditions and temperature. Hot days more like 65F, really cold or rainy days more like 40*F.
Note that you probably won’t find too many people that run actual flowmeters on their hot and cold sides given the cost of a descent one (I’m a fan of Siemens Coriolis personally) and the limited utility they provide in this application.
I’m not familiar with the AV30 but the answer for any ethanol distillation is calculated as follows:
First, identify the saturation temp. The higher the pressure, the higher the delta T and the more cooling you get out of your water. Let’s plan on condensing at 45C, and an incoming water temp of 15C. Let’s also plan on an “approach” of 10C which is pretty reasonable. That means your leaving water is going to be 35C, and your delta T is therefore 20 degrees K. We look up the specific heat of water and get a value of 4170 J/kgK meaning for each kg per second of water, you get 204170=80kW.
Now we look up the latent heat of ethanol, which is 846 kj/kg, multiplied by the density of ethanol is 667 kJ/L per second. That all works out to approximately 10kg of water per L of ethanol condensed. (846kJ/80kJ). So about 300lpm to do 30Lpm of condensing.
Mind you, this does not take into account the heat exchanger capacity, which insufficient will drastically raise your approach and make your delta T much lower, meaning you’ll need a shitload more water.
I think I did that right lol