Probably Ought To Know, But Can`t Think

[kme]

for the third time in as many weeks, I`ve got a gum full of Novocaine, and my dentist has his Porsche for another few months

Anyway.........

In the brewery, we have a "cask washer" - 

Effectively, a double stainless sink unit.

In one side we have an immersion heater ( 3KW, s.p. 11"), heating Caustic, which is sprayed around the inside of the casks for 3 mins, on a timed cycle.

The other sink just rinses them out with cold water, under mains pressure.

Recently, we had to replace the immersion. We noticed that the Caustic wasn`t getting hot enough; cos the supplied stat only goes up to 68 degrees - they want at least 80.

So fitted a high temp. stat, which has resolved that problem. Now we have another.

There are many more casks to clean than before, due to the success of the ales. At this time of year, and with us having been using temp. monitoring on the caustic, we`re finding that, after 9 mins of use, even with the immersion stat at 90:

Start temp: 85 deg C

After 1st barrel: 80 deg. C

After 2nd barrel - 74 deg. C

After 3rd barrel - 68 deg. C

Obviously, the transference of temperature between the caustic and the steel casks, is cooling it faster than it can heat.

We`ve lagged the sink unit as well as possible ( before the lagging, it was lots worse).

I can technically fit another 11" heater unit in - but I don`t want to do that, if it doesnt` give enough heat output to overcome the barrel cooling effect.

They don`t have time to give it a reheating period between every couple of barrels.

How do I work out the temp. losses, and heat gain from a second 3KW unit??

Thanks

KME 

 

[ProDave]

I would say you need a larger tank.

It doesn't sound like a 24/7 operation. But obviously heat is being drawn out faster than a 3KW input can cope with.

So either a second heater, or a larger tank so it can store more heat (as long as there is enough down time to allow the larger tank to heat up fully)

 

[Sidewinder]

Cask material & delta t?

Wash time of each cask?

 

[poni]

I was thinking a smaller tank (less water to heat) and fit a second or even a third heater, maybe even a 3phase 11kw heater

 

[kerching]

A bit over the top , but it would provide some redundancy for maintenance.....

Could you creat a second wash station and use one station for two washes then rest it to recover whilst you use unit 2 and repeat until bored

Just a thought

 

[loonytoon]

Can you put caustic soda through a Triton 10kw shower? :-D

 

[Apache]

With milking parlours I always get people to pre heat with hot water before the chemical goes in. Is that a simple option to reduce the chill?

 

[poni]

we need to know a bit more

like the number of litres  of water and % of caustic soda in it

Surface area of the tank its in, and what the tank is made of

Surface area of the casks and what they are made of

the shower idea is not that bad an idea, a bit like a dish washer, I think that the caustic soda  would eat it away in no time

in the past we used super heated steam (saturated steam) to sterilise the milk vats