RE: ADA glass "pollen" CO2 disperser

["Wayne Jones" <waj at mnsi_net>]

Kevin Reavis wrote:
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Has anyone had any experience using the ADA glass pollen CO2 disperser
with
a DIY pop bottle reactor?  Will the pressure generated in the bottle be
sufficient to push the gas thru the glass disperser without blowing up
the
bottle?  Thanks for your help.

I reply:

I have never tried it mainly because it seems like so much trouble
compared to just putting the CO2 into the intake of a filter but it
should work. I think those glass difusers are supposed to operate at
about 15 psi. During the making of champagne the pressure inside a
champagne bottle can reach 90 psi so if you use a champagne yeast you
should not have a problem achieving a suitable operating pressure.

However there are a few other potential problems. You have to use a
pressure vessel such as a champagne bottle and you need to have some
sort of pressure relief valve that will open before you reach the
maximum design pressure of your bottle. A rubber cork pushed to too hard
into a champagne bottle would probably do but you would have to go
through some trial and error before you got it right and I wouldn't want
to be there for the trial and error on the too much pressure side.
Another problem is that you are going to greatly increase the potential
for leaks in your system. Also you would have to use a washer bottle to
clean the CO2 coming from the fermentor so that gunk doesn't build up in
the glass difuser, plug it and blow your pressure relief valve. The
fermentation may be quite slow as well although I am not sure on that
point.

All in all it is probably best just to buy a pressurized system that
uses a pollen glass difuser. You get a regulator and a pressure vessel
and a relief valve and a difuser all in one unit. Seems a lot safer too.

I think the best way to difuse CO2 from a yeast CO2 setup is to inject
the CO2 into the intake side of a pump or power head or canister filter.
It works even better if the output from the pump is run into some large
diameter pipe before going back into the tank. Virtually all the CO2
will be disolved this way. There is nothing to see in the tank and
everyone already has some sort of filter or pump on their tank.

Wayne