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Glycol not flowing in lines. Can someone please review our design PDF?

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  • Glycol not flowing in lines. Can someone please review our design PDF?

    We have hooked up our glycol pump to our fermenters and are not seeing any flow.

    We have everything hooked up but glycol does not appear to be flowing through our lines. We have clear tubing from our copper glycol lines to the ferementers and we do not see any flow, just pockets of air bobbing up and down in the top most drain (out) line.

    Can you please take a look at the attached images and provide your thoughts on our design? The three images contain a copy of our glycol loop as well as which glycol ports we're hooking into our 4BBL and 2BBL Stout Tanks fermenters (line in, line out).

    Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and help.

    Click image for larger version

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  • #2
    I had a similar problem when plumbing in some new tanks, I corrected it by using ball valves with bleeder screws (not sure if that is the correct name) at the outlet of all the tanks. This allowed me to loosen the the screw and allow air to easily escape while the jacket filled with glycol, and the I tightened up the screw once glycol filled the jacket and started to flow out the top. You need an easy way to let air get out of the jacket, you're probably creating a small vacuum with the pump system.

    Bleed the air out and fill the jackets one fermenter at a time, and you should be all set.

    Good luck.

    Comment


    • #3
      What is the pressure in the supply header? How high is the glycol out port above the pump in the chiller? How many HP is the supply pump? Your diagram looks good, I am running a system with nearly the exact same design. We keep 15psi pressure in the supply header, more than enough to get the flow needed in our tanks.

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      • #4
        And if you don't have the bleeder screws on your ball valves, you can always just cut open the plumbing, bleed the air out and then attach it again really fast when you get glycol. Presuming that you don't have to cut a bunch of copper and solder it back together super fast. But with pex or other tubes it can be done. If you do that on one tank you can at least see if that is the problem. And I've tried to attach a photo of the ball valve with bleeder screw that I use, hopefully that came through.Click image for larger version

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        • #5
          Startup

          First thing. Air bleeders are not and should not be required on ANY correctly installed open loop system where the return well is at atmospheric pressure.
          Such a configuration should never air lock if everything is " right " and should self prime with respect to jacketed vessels.
          The only thing bleeders in the plant will help you with is draining down risers and maintenance routines, otherwise they are not needed and are just something else to go wrong or leak. The fewer threaded connections on Glycol the better.
          If you are using Goulds NPE or similar pumps, they do however have to be bled on dry startup in many cases and will not self prime the first go. The impeller casing on that series pump has a hex bleeder towards the top side which should be fully removed with static line pressure on the pump head to bleed it quickly.
          If you have Three Phase pumps the phase rotation has to be in the correct direction, that is not running backwards..
          You need a gauge on the discharge header near the unit so you can see whats going on with the baseline of the process pump and always have a visual reference for what the operating pressure is when things are running correctly. If you can be right at the process pump and have a ball valve on the discharge line, you can pretty much get a feel quickly if the pump is moving any fluid. An Ammeter will also tell you very clearly if the pump is generating flow. The NPE will still move fluid if running backwards but not well and not near enough. Certain other impeller styles will overload quick if run backwards.
          Pumps and loops are pretty straightforward to troubleshoot if the loop has been correctly designed and built. If its a first run and you have not had a lot of hands on experience running pumps, it can be somewhat challenging but not impossible to work through. The Chiller MFGs have some good resources, as well as some of the pump Vendors that are known on the forum.
          Last edited by Starcat; 06-27-2017, 07:20 PM.
          Warren Turner
          Industrial Engineering Technician
          HVACR-Electrical Systems Specialist
          Moab Brewery
          The Thought Police are Attempting to Suppress Free Speech and Sugar coat everything. This is both Cowardice and Treason given to their own kind.

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          • #6
            Thank you

            Wanted to thank everyone that replied. We got the glycol loops to successfully circulate water after purging the air from the fermenters' return lines.

            We purged the air by opening the lines (flexible braided PVC) from the copper loop to the fermenters. Once we did that, we found a valve in the pump that was a pressure regulator.

            Adjusting that regulator the flow to and from the fermenters began circulating. We then flushed all the water out and filled with glycol. The glycol ran perfectly and then we noticed that the chiller wasn't chilling, but warming our glycol.

            After contacting the manufacturer and having a technician review, found the chiller had a blown compressor which thankfully is still under warranty. Hoping to fix soon so we can start brewing our first batch of beer.

            Wish us luck and thanks again to everyone that replied.

            Cheers!

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