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  • Kettle Stack Heat Exchange

    I've seen threads talk about kettle stack condensers, but I was wonder who makes a kettle stack heat exchange to collect hot water during the boil. Any leads will be greatly appreciated.

  • #2
    I assume that you refer to the kettle steam stack and not the boiler/burner exhaust? Most kettle stack condensers are an open system, meaning that cool water is sprayed directly into the kettle steam. The steam is condensed by the cool spray and the resulting very warm water is sewered. I've never had good luck with these setups, but have seen some German equipment work very well. The discharged water may possibly be used for something in the brewhouse, but it will be contaminated by volatiles in the kettle steam--nasty tasting stuff. Still, if you use hot caustic wash, this could work for you. Using a closed heat exchanger would be unrealistically expensive for this application. Gases require massive surface area to transfer heat. Your kettle condenser would be as big as your kettle. Another possibility would be to use a traditional spray condenser, and then transfer the heat from the discharged very warm water with a liquid/liquid closed exchanger--like the plate and frames most folks use to knock out through. Either way, the heat gained would likely not be worth the effort. Although the steam does hold lots of latent heat, the temperature isn't that high at 212F. You may have better luck recovering the flue gas heat from your boiler. But even that has its own set of problems.... I'd like to hear other's experience or ideas on this subject. Certainly would be nice to get "free" heat. Anybody have this one figured out?
    Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--

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    • #3
      stack heat exchangers

      I have seen several "closed" or indirect robbers although the direct or "open" ones that gitchegummi is writing about might be more common but I've never encountered one except for stackless condensers. I was influenced early on by New Belgium as they figured this out and stuck with it. I heard one of the owners give a talk on energy efficiency in the brewhaus at a brewer's conference in maybe '95 and later that year I did a short stint working there at the old railway depot brewery and saw it in action. That version had a lot of resistance and their evaporation rate was compromised slightly if I recall correctly. When you opened the kettle to add hops it steamed out. At the time I thought they could of added a stack draft induction assist fan like the Tjernlund. I haven't yet visited their new masterpiece brewery to see what they have going now. I personally built a double wall (jacketed) stack robber for my own kettle later and was not impressed. So I built a tube shell one out of two 1/2 bbl straight side sankeys welded end to end and (21) 1 1/2" tubes welded in. Mucho mas mejor. You need a lot of surface area of heat exchange. Also, you need to break up the laminar flow or else the hottest steam goes up the middle. Turbulators work great for this(familiar to many boiler heat exchangers). Of course condensate drainage and cleanability is key. There is a lot of energy to claim from this and it is/can be worth it. It isn't "free heat" but it is already paid for and there for the taking. Those with boiler stacks ought to "re" claim that also. There are companies manufacturing these as well, just search the internet. I remember a thread last year that brought up the direct robbers. This intrigues me to this day as it could be a very low cost way to go if water is not an issue. Unfortunately for me water is an issue!
      Last edited by canyon; 10-29-2008, 09:18 PM.

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      • #4
        They have closed system units which are called energy recovery units.
        Each system is design for the brewery it is installed and have a dedicated "energy storage tank" The recovered water can be used for the next brew, CIPing or what ever you choose.
        Because of the cost, if you are not doing multi- brews a day/shift, then they might not be worth the investment.

        I think you would find most of the bigger breweries(100hl+) have some form of these units.

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