Using steam to heat mash
Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:25 pm
G'Day Guy's,
Just spent a bit of time doing a search to see if this has been done before on the forum and nothing came close to what I'm going to do.
First a bit of history back in the days before I even found this forum I made a project where I turned a 5hp B&S motor into a 2 stroke by mig welding a new cam on the crank shaft :laughing-rolling: Then I made a flash boiler to run it but found I couldn't get enough steam to run the engine. Running on compressed air worked nicely so my idea did work in a ways.
Fast forward a decade :scared-eek: and I did do a trial run with the flash boiler using that bd burner I made while doing that tutorial and man did the steam flow :handgestures-thumbupleft: and keeping water upto it was a problem :angry-banghead: So point proved and nothing done from there as a new base for the flashboiler is needed to raise the height for this BD burner to under.
I do have a flow meter and got some DC pumps for the water feed as once the litres/minute is set I can use the smallest pump and run directly off a solar panel and bank of super caps :handgestures-thumbupleft:
So for the flashboiler it's just 63 turns of 3/8" copper pipe sitting in some 4" copper pipe where the lower turns are close together and as it rises the tubes grow in gap and it's all enclosed in a box using sheep wool as the insulation.
Now my idea so this flashboiler can have a new life is to setup my 50 litre mash tun and put 30 litres of water in and see how long it takes to boil and if I'm right there will no increase in the volume of water as pure steam will be injected. For the steam injector nozzle I'll use that spare 30 micron SS filter I made for siphoning the fermenters, as it's only soft soldered it won't beak down as the temp won't get high enough in the fluid to melt the soft solder and I do think it will spread the steam nicely :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Just logging my thoughts tonight while enjoying some of my craft beer coupled with pales and this weekend pic's will come as I do think this is a project where a How-To can be done.
Now with this new phone thing I have that does it's own thing I may be able to make a video of of this but I may need to use my daughter to do it :laughing-rolling:
Cheers Bryan
Just spent a bit of time doing a search to see if this has been done before on the forum and nothing came close to what I'm going to do.
First a bit of history back in the days before I even found this forum I made a project where I turned a 5hp B&S motor into a 2 stroke by mig welding a new cam on the crank shaft :laughing-rolling: Then I made a flash boiler to run it but found I couldn't get enough steam to run the engine. Running on compressed air worked nicely so my idea did work in a ways.
Fast forward a decade :scared-eek: and I did do a trial run with the flash boiler using that bd burner I made while doing that tutorial and man did the steam flow :handgestures-thumbupleft: and keeping water upto it was a problem :angry-banghead: So point proved and nothing done from there as a new base for the flashboiler is needed to raise the height for this BD burner to under.
I do have a flow meter and got some DC pumps for the water feed as once the litres/minute is set I can use the smallest pump and run directly off a solar panel and bank of super caps :handgestures-thumbupleft:
So for the flashboiler it's just 63 turns of 3/8" copper pipe sitting in some 4" copper pipe where the lower turns are close together and as it rises the tubes grow in gap and it's all enclosed in a box using sheep wool as the insulation.
Now my idea so this flashboiler can have a new life is to setup my 50 litre mash tun and put 30 litres of water in and see how long it takes to boil and if I'm right there will no increase in the volume of water as pure steam will be injected. For the steam injector nozzle I'll use that spare 30 micron SS filter I made for siphoning the fermenters, as it's only soft soldered it won't beak down as the temp won't get high enough in the fluid to melt the soft solder and I do think it will spread the steam nicely :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Just logging my thoughts tonight while enjoying some of my craft beer coupled with pales and this weekend pic's will come as I do think this is a project where a How-To can be done.
Now with this new phone thing I have that does it's own thing I may be able to make a video of of this but I may need to use my daughter to do it :laughing-rolling:
Cheers Bryan