Refrigeration calculation help for small (I mean real small)brewery

[Terrazza]

First post here, and I am going to get flamed!!!!

So I am needing refrigeration engineering/component help for a very small brewery application. What we are faced with is the need to chill 35 gallons of propylene glycol/water mix and maintain it at 29 degrees F.

What we were envisioning as a solution was to obtain a 1/3 to 1/2 HP compressor, braze in a copper capillary tube, a drier/filter, and run a coil of copper line submerged inside the glycol tank to act as the evaporator. And then find an appropriate sized condenser/fan for heat removal.

I was turned on to this idea after seeing PC overclockers building phase change chillers for cooling their processors. I spoke with a refrigeration/brewery technician who calculated out a required BTU load of approximately 1100 btus.

So is building something as described doable? Could it be done similarly to how overclockers are buying individual refrigeration used components, and if yes to both of these questions, how would I find out what type of compressor, length of capillary tube, length/size of copper evaporator, and size of condenser would be needed and where to get them frome?

That's a lot of questions for a first time poster, so I appreciate any help. Thanks!

[Brian_UK]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

No reason to get flamed, lots of people try daft things without getting shot down.

Anything is doable, for sizing a cap tube try here..
http://www.danfoss.com/United_Kingdo...ils/DanCap.htm

Try contacting your local refrigeration wholesaler/depot, they should be able to help out with equipment choices.

[lowcool]

they have been doing glycol chillers over here for years now,im surprised that something similar is not available off the shelf.google hoshizaki lancer
i know they cover new zealand as well but am not sure as to being multi national

[Terrazza]

Thank you guys!

I looked at the DanCap sizing program, and some of their other software. I thought RS+3 was an appropriate beginning software to help me out. So I plugged some numbers in, but I'm not sure if those input numbers match what I'm trying to do. Maybe someone could give me feedback on what I chose...

I selected
cooling capacity=1100BTU's
conditions=CECOMAF-M (evap temp=14F, cond temp=131F)
refrig=134A
115V
Evap Outlet Temp = 28F (this would be the temperature of the glycol resevoir?)
Compressor suction temperature = 89.6?
Subcooling set to 0.

I hit search and it gives me NLV6.1F compressor with 99% accuracy.

Am I using this software correctly? What would be my next step if this is a correct compressor to choose?

[Bones]

any reason in particular why you want to use a capillory tube?

you would be better off getting a small self contained glycol unit, with tank, pump, condenser and outlets

+1 with lowcool on hoshizaki lancer stuff, if you can afford it.

or maybe http://www.andale.com.au/product_det...rentcat=Glycol Equipment&cat=Glycol Tank

without working out any capacities, is this the sort of thing you want?