Recycled cooling water system

[Golden Beaver Distillery]

I got two 1,600 tanks and a chiller to create a closed cold water cooling system for my condenser and to cool mash. 
 

Wondering if any of you will share how you laid out your piping and what pumps you used? 

[Southernhighlander]

Just to throw an idea out there that might help you: Keep in mind that your condenser is a hot water heater.  You can use the hot condenser water for creating your next mash and for CIP cleaning.  So for condenser cooling I would not loop that zone.  I would run the water from your chilled water tank through your condenser and run the hot water from the condenser into two insulated hot water holding tanks.  The tanks can be cheap HDPE tanks.  You can wrap the tanks with some blanket insulation.  You should be able to use all of your hot condenser water.  In my opinion this is a much better way than chilling hot water while you are heating cool water. 

 Also starting with 120 to 130F water decreases the time that it takes too heat your mash tun up to operating temp, so your mash cooks are considerably shorter.

 

[Golden Beaver Distillery]

Understand the process, but if you are not going to mash or only need a portion to mash, the water needs to be transferred into the second holding tank to be chilled overnight.

I'm in CA, so I have to minimize the amount of water that gets put down the drain (read none) - a condition of being granted to operate a distillery.  

You can understand now why I'm looking to glean ideas from what others have done. I'm trying to create an elegant system with the minimum of pumps and holding tanks. 

The chilling circuit will be separate stand alone system from the condenser/mash cooling circuit.

[Southernhighlander]

5 hours ago, Golden Beaver Distillery said:

Understand the process, but if you are not going to mash or only need a portion to mash, the water needs to be transferred into the second holding tank to be chilled overnight.

 

You are right. If you are not mashing and distilling 5 days per week it would not be the best option for you.    Mike at MG Thermal Consulting has done more distilleries than anyone that I know and it would be hard to find anyone with more experience with chilling systems for both crash cooling mash and condenser cooling.    

Office: 770-995-4066

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            www.mgthermalconsultingco.com

[MG Thermal Consulting]

I have just sold a system with a chiller having "NF" non-ferrous water passages to reclaim still hot water.

With your type set-up you need some additional way to meter output and input from city water so that you can't run dry.

[Coriolis]

So, here's an idea I've been toying with to help increase efficiencies and decrease the load on the chiller:

Currently I run the hot water output from the condenser through water tank with a coil before going into a header tank to cool further before circulating back to the chiller. This way it takes the heat out and gives me hot water for cleaning etc... nothing particularly special about that. Then it struck me that i could be using this warm water to raise the temperature of the wash to be distilled the next day using the jacket/pad I have on the fermenter. I'm set up with a 2100l fermenter that charges the still three times. If i use the hot water from the first run to warm up the remainder in the fermenter it should theoretically reduce my heat up time the next day. It's not dissimilar in concept to a Charentais brandy still but using the condenser water rather than the lyne arm.

Anyone tried this? Thoughts?

 

[MG Thermal Consulting]

If you are going to use the water for the next mash run, then the chiller would need to have non-ferrous water passages (including pump),

Easiest way is to meter water form city water source and match that to the still condenser usage.  

I would do this from a CWT (non-ferrous) pressurized so you don't have bacteria buildup.