Anyone know how PEX plastic tubing would hold up inside a processor. I've got a central boiler outdoor wood boiler and it wouldn't take much to run a loop off my existing circuit to heat my processor. During the winter I've got it running anyway so thought that i may as well use it to heat my processor and wouldn't cost me anything. Just use the electric heating element for the summer. The water temp for the boiler is 185 degrees and figured that if i coiled a bunch of Pex tubing inside my processor barrel it would probably heat the oil up to at least 130 degrees if left overnight. Just don't know if the pex would hold up. Any thoughts???
thanks
Mike

 

The problem w/PEX is it tends to get very brittle when exposed to heat and VO (and most likely B100). If your not putting much pressure in the PEX, it may be fine, at least for a season or 2. Take a peice of your PEX and leave it in the next couple batches and see what it looks/feels like!

I guess the worst case scenario is overflowing bio reactor w/water or ?? from boiler or contaminating the boiler fluid w/bio... either way doesn't sound too good for the boiler.

What about adapting to aluminum tubing or similar and putting that inside the drum? DON"T USE COPPER though!!

Why not wrap the outside of the drum w/PEX and then insulate over that?

How hot is the water from the boiler?