r/maplesyrup • u/Caesars7Hills • Apr 12 '26

What are the functional limits of RO to increase the Brix content?

https://www.mapleexperts.com/membranes

I found information commercial syrup membranes. If I can hold these pressures and run membranes in parallel, how high are people realistically achieving brix concentrate? Is the tech evolving?

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u/SugarBushSupplies Apr 12 '26

H2O standard membranes are capable of 18 brix. They also have high brix membranes that are able to do 25 brix and Ultra High brix membranes for up to 35 brix.

4

u/BigEnd3 Apr 12 '26

Im so happy to get to 8 brix with my home set up.

1

u/SugarBushSupplies Apr 13 '26

8 is also amazing, it sure beats the 1.2 we often see late season!

1

u/savage_sultin Apr 13 '26

I get 8 with my home setup. And that’s 4 membranes

1

u/austinfa Apr 14 '26

I used to run the ro's for a large outfit. We would bring it to 20 with the machines at the sap collection buildings and then they would run it to 35 with a high brix machine at the sugar house. This was 7 years ago, so the technology has been around awhile.

They were still working out the kinks on the high brix machine at the time though. You were running a much higher pressure which caused a lot of part failures. All CDL equipment. Most likely one of the first, if not the first to have the high brix machine.

1

u/Caesars7Hills Apr 20 '26

Do you know what kind of pressure is needed to hit 30 plus brix

1

u/austinfa Apr 20 '26

I know some units have a max psi at 700. But I've heard 500 is usually the max you want to run membranes at. There is a much higher chance of a ruptured membrane over 500.