What is a cold water tank?
The cold water tank is used to cool and store the cold water required in the beer brewing process, and the cold water flowing through the plate heat exchanger cools the wort. The excess heat generated in this process is transferred to the water, which heats it up, and then this water is stored in a hot water tank, so that the whole process is both energy- and water-efficient.
What are the cooling methods of cold water tanks?
There are three ways to cool the cold water tank: cold water jacket cooling, cold water tank inner coil cooling, and external heat displacement cooling. The heat exchange efficiency of these three methods is different, and the applicable process conditions are also different. Overall, the external sheet heat exchanger cooling is higher than coil cooling, and coil cooling is higher than jacket cooling. Therefore, the time required to obtain cold water of 2-3 degrees Celsius is also different when the outside temperature and ice water temperature are constant. Like the Ice Water Jacket, which is suitable for small batches of non-continuous brewing, ice water can sufficiently cool cold water at night and other non-brewing times. Sheet heat exchangers are suitable for large, multi-batch continuous brewing, with both the cold water requirement of each batch and the timely replenishment of the cold water required for the next batch. Therefore, it is very important in the cooling design of the brewing system.
How much capacity do you need for a cold water tank?
The size of the cold water tank should be sufficient to meet the needs of the process. The requirement of cold water is about 1 of the amount of cooling wort13-1.25 times, usually with 12 times the theoretical working condition calculation. For example, with a brewhouse volume of 20 tons, the amount of cold water required for brewing is 20*12=24 tons, if two batches are produced continuously, the interval time is at least 2 hours to 4 hours, here we take 3 hours as an example, in the continuous brewing process, the ice water will be cooled to 20 room temperature water to 2-3 degrees Celsius cold water within 3 hours, according to this time to calculate the required exchange efficiency and select the appropriate equipment.
However, in the actual production of cold water grains, the capacity of the cold water tank will be increased according to some uncertain factors encountered in the theoretical calculation and combined with the actual production process, and the volume of the cold water tank will usually be configured to 2-3 times of the wort cooling capacity, and the cold water required for 20 tons of saccharified wort is about 48 tons. In the case of a small number of brewing batches, 15 times can also meet the needs.
The above is the relevant knowledge about cold water tanks, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tiantai.