Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I'm a bit stumped and was hoping someone better at math skills then I have could help me this one out.

I'm trying to work out the time it will take to heat 130ltrs of beer in a jacketed pot still. The starting temp could be 14deg C to 80 deg C?

The heating comes from a 42KW commercial hot water system boiler, a high temperature heat transfer fluid is pumped to & around the pot still's jacket by a high temp pump.
The jacketed pot has a heating surface area of 790cm2.
The pot has a working volume of 130ltrs.
The rate of fluid transfer rate is not known so some guess work may be required.
The restrictions in the circulation of the heat transfer fluid is the hot side pipe work: 3/4" dia X 1000mm length of pipe work running at 45 psi. It's an open heating system with a maximum working heating fluid temp of 160C

I can't think of what else you would need to know to work this out, but please ask!

I use this calc its very handy i keep the link saved on my home screen

http://homedistiller.org/calcs/reflux_calc

Happy stillin

I have been pondering the same Q with using a steam bath to heat a keg and whether it is cheaper than using a 3 burner straight under the keg. Now for heat transfer one has to look a BTU ( British Thermal Units) then go from there. Off memory it takes 1btu to heat on gallon of water 1 degree and whether that is in C of F I aint worked out yet.

What I'll do with my setup is just time how long(if it does) and the gas usage. I will be using those green can bottles one can get for $1 a can for the flash boiler.

Still gotta finish the flash boiler and it will be fun trying this out.

Now for the equations for the heat transfer I did find a heap of in the pdf files this site has and in particular the steam pdf's are a good read and may help you out.

Cheers Bryan

There are a lot of variables to consider. I'm sure someone smarter than me could calculate a "perfect" scenario that would get you a close figure.

Or, just run the thing and find out :handgestures-thumbupleft: