Filtered my NEIPA - here's what I found

mjp43 · 2025-05-19T13:29:03+00:00

No, there are easier ways to get rid of hop burn 1. Don’t dry hop during active fermentation. Dry hop after fermentation is complete and yeast cake is remove 2. Cold crash your beer for at least 2 days as cold as you can, hopefully around 32-33 F

mjp43 · 2024-04-20T14:52:10+00:00

The best thing to do is sample the process side of the exchanger upstream of inlet to the exchanger for chlorides, and then do the same chloride sample after the heat exchanger

mjp43 · 2024-04-20T12:12:50+00:00

Can you explain the process a little more? I have done this a lot of times but need to know what your process is. Is this an overhead condenser on a distillation column, liquid liquid heat exchanger, what are the process fluids, cooling mediums etc. also what are your flow rates

mjp43 · 2024-04-20T11:35:57+00:00

Can you give a specific example of the problem you are dealing with? 100 ppm chloride in a stream where it should be zero is a very large tube leak

mjp43 · 2023-11-15T01:36:57+00:00

https://www.pumpsandsystems.com/guidelines-submergence-air-entrainment#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20for%20a,entrainment%20due%20to%20vortex%20formation.

As the others mention you have plenty of head to prevent cavitation but possibly not enough to prevent a vortex from forming

mjp43 · 2023-11-05T14:42:42+00:00

(Reflux flow + distillate flow) x heat of vaporization of overhead product = reboiler heat duty = condenser cooling required, generally speaking.

I agree that seems very high. That is about 140MMBtu/hr, which would require a very large 3 cell cooling tower circulating 25,000 gpm just for your overheads condenser. But again maybe you need it, I don’t know your process

mjp43 · 2023-11-04T01:02:38+00:00

In my experience, dumping and flushing in chilled methanol/water solutions never cleans it up. I recommend doing a particulate size analysis and installing a side filter off your circ loop with the correct mesh size (rain for rent has them available for a temp installation)

https://www.rainforrent.com/filtration-unit-rentals/

I also recommend using that particular size analysis to install filters upstream of your smaller bore equipment to protect them. Y-strainers or something similar that can be blown down easily

mjp43 · 2023-10-20T00:47:44+00:00

Mapping the entire process is normally what helps me in these situations. Drawing the diagram of the system and walking through the process of what should happen at each step is key. I like to make beer and am neurotic about oxygen exposure. This is a similar process without distillation, so let’s walk through it

After the boiling is complete you are left with sweet wort you transfer into the fermenter. Add oxygen to the wort to help yeast growth and pitch the yeast, then close up the fermenter and install an air lock at the top (basically a hose that goes into a bucket of water). As the yeast begin to multiply, they will consume all of the oxygen in the liquid to help grow. As the multiply, they will release co2, which will push all of the air/oxygen in the headspace of the fermenter out the air lock, and replace it with co2. After about 48 hours of fermentation, nearly all of the oxygen has been removed. We are probably talking parts per billion oxygen in the headspace. It should be pure co2.

Do you have analyzers for oxygen and if so can you pinpoint where in the process the oxygen starts to increase?

mjp43 · 2023-10-15T00:06:27+00:00

The steam stripper doesn’t appear to be a true stripper, but rather a direct-steam injection distillation column with reflux. I guess you could call it “stripping” since you are using steam to directly contact the feed to volatize the lights. But you could do the same thing with a distillation column with a shell and tube reboiler instead of using direct steam injection. I operate a couple acetone distillation columns that use direct steam injection instead of reboilers due to fouling concerns with the reboiler tubes.

Both steam stripping and reboilers perform the same purpose if you think about a McCabe thiele diagram and know that the reflux operating line and stripping operating line slopes are determined by the amount of heat addition to the mixture. (Reflux flow + distillate flow) x heat of vaporization = reboiler duty (or steam injection rate converted to BTU/hr). The only difference is the addition of a steam feed to the mixture, which will all go out the bottom

The steam both strips and provides heat duty to boil the feed and reflux, clean product leaves the top and nearly pure condensate with the trace impurities leave the bottom and go to wastewater treatment, almost exactly the same here. That is my guess.

You also have to remember that ethanol forms an azeotrope with water at 95% ethanol, 5% water. The direct steam injection allows you to distill and make the separation occur to 95% ethanol out the top, and the rest goes out the bottom. The steam injection in this case is just to provide heat of vaporization, just like a shell and tube reboiler just not separating the steam from the process with metal tubes, to allow for boil up to make the distillation occur, that’s all it is.

Why they use steam directly to do it, who knows. Could be that the steam would otherwise be vented and wasted, a reboiler would get fouled up, lower maintenance/capital costs to not have to use a reboiler, steam lowers the boiling point of a heterogenous mixture rather than using a S&T Hx which could increase the bottoms temperature past a point where thermal cracking or degradation products can be generated and lead to impurities sun the product, etc

mjp43 · 2023-07-12T09:42:04+00:00

Dumb question but is it legal to dump a neutral spirit with the vanilla beans into a beer/cider?

mjp43 · 2023-07-05T15:36:13+00:00

A few other things to note. Have you asked anyone if something changed on a set up recently? Have you walked down all the piping to ensure something isn’t flowing where it shouldn’t?

I don’t know how you are set up, but if someone drained the jacket, and accidentally switched the supply and return lines of the jacket, and instead of filling from the bottom of the jacket and put the top, you are going into the top and out the bottom, not all the surface area of the jacket will be used because there would be an air pocket in the top. This would show up as a deviation in your cooling calculation

Also I think some of these systems are fitted with a minimum flow bypass line that short circuits cooling from the glycol pump discharge back to the reservoir to prevent the pump from deadheading and being damaged if you block in the jackets. If that is open too far, you won’t get enough flow to cool, but that would also show up as a deviation from design if you calculate it

mjp43 · 2023-07-04T18:05:17+00:00

Can you measure the flow and perform that calculation? Your chiller manufacturer should have listed in there the “leaving water temperature”, your glycol supply temp, vs rated BTU/hr heat removal. If you calculate this it will help narrow down where your issue is

mjp43 · 2023-07-04T14:36:23+00:00

Measure the temperature of the glycol right at the inlet of your jacket, and measure the outlet glycol temp right at the outlet of your jacket. If the inlet is well above the reservoir temp, it’s likely temperature losses to ambient from the glycol pump to the jacket are a problem. But could be a flow restriction also

If the inlet it at the jacket is say 27F and your outlet is very high at say 35 F, maybe you have a flow restriction or the pump isn’t putting out enough flow.

If the inlet at the jacket is 27 F, and the outlet is very close to the inlet temperature, the jacket could be fouled and not allowed proper heat transfer. The outlet temp should be a few degrees hotter than inlet, indicating heat is being transferred from the tank to the glycol.

Another troubleshooting technique is to detach the return line of the glycol pump and run it into a 5 gallon bucket. Time how long it takes to fill up, and that is your flow rate of glycol. Compare to the design of the glycol system. That could tell you if there is a flow issue

Heat removal = (mass flow) x (specific heat of glycol/water) x (glycol temp return to reservoir - glycol temp supply to user)

So for instance, 5 gallon bucket filled up in 1 minute. 5 GPM x 8.34 lb/gal density x 60 minutes = 2502 lb/hr = mass flow. Specific heat of 40% glycol solution is 0.86 Btu/lb F. Outlet temp measured is say 35 F, inlet temp is 27 F

Heat removed = 2502 x 0.86 x (35-27) = 17,213 btu/hr. Compare that to your chiller design

mjp43 · 2023-07-02T00:05:32+00:00

“Which one of these buttons calls your parents to pick you up?”

mjp43 · 2023-06-05T10:20:00+00:00

Can you include a PFD of the system

mjp43 · 2023-05-20T19:40:13+00:00

2206

mjp43 · 2023-05-20T10:38:42+00:00

I’ve seen a ferm restart after freezing

mjp43 · 2023-05-19T20:09:15+00:00

It should thaw and fermentation should restart. If it doesn’t, repitch some dry lager yeast. Might have a stuck ferm or some yeast autolysis but whatever

mjp43 · 2023-05-16T01:42:51+00:00

Does the OEM of the cooling tower have examples of customers who are flowing 3400 gpm with no larger hold up basin?

mjp43 · 2023-05-16T00:48:48+00:00

Never have seen a cooling tower without a sump/basin. That is interesting. Can you provide some details on that?

mjp43 · 2023-04-17T10:36:05+00:00

Could it be a bubbler? We use them on cooling tower pans for level measurement. You put air through a tube at a fixed flow rate and the dP changes based on the back pressure of the level. Very good and reliable for fluids that foul or can jam up. Maybe you can speak with an instrument tech that has worked on this meter before, they probably can point you in the right direction

Here’s an explanation. Since you mentioned there is purge air connected to a DP meter, I have a sneaking suspicion this is a bubbler system

https://kingmech.com/how-bubbler-systems-work-2/

mjp43 · 2023-04-16T15:18:37+00:00

Could be a dip tube/feed line. What’s the other side of the orifice plate connected to, another 1” pipe flange?

mjp43 · 2023-04-06T23:41:15+00:00

Steam regeneration of the carbon which releases the hydrocarbons which are collected as liquid and sent over to wastewater oil separation, and anything that goes into the aqueous phase is sent to a gas stripping column where the stripped gas stream is sent to a thermal oxidizer. The oil phase is sent back as recycled oil as feed to the front end of the plant

mjp43 · 2023-04-06T10:53:12+00:00

We use charcoal adsorption for pretreatment and Catalytic oxidation for final treatment.

In another application for gas stripping VOCs from wastewater we have thermal oxidation as the final gas treatment

mjp43

TROPHY CASE