Flow Meter for Stack (commercial smoker)

[smokehousebali]

Hey there folks. Sorry if this is long but I've got a rather complicated problem on my hands.

I've got a BBQ joint overseas in Bali, Indonesia. You can check it out at www.smokehousebali.com if youre interested. At this location, with no real regulations or codes to follow (thanks 3rd world) I just built myself a stick burner out of a 16 foot long piece of 46" drilling pipe I found at the harbor. We smoke on Rambutan wood, which is pretty similar to Apple. Its works great and the BBQ we serve up is pretty excellent.

I have an opportunity to open a second location in Singapore. The problem is, Singapore is a real city - upwards of 5 million people - and almost all of the island is built up. With this comes very westernized building codes and clean air regulations. Because of this, I cant really get away with using a stick burner as my cooker. So, Ive been looking at a Bewley Model 1100. It's pretty much airtight unless you open the doors, and we can have hoods to take care of the smoke once its open. Thats not the issue.

The issue is that the Bewley 'desires' a 10' stack from the top of the smoker, with no bends in it. This is simply impossible for our space as I have a 40 story apartment building above me. I'm also going to need to use a scrubber to pull smoke and creosote particulates out of the air. This is where I'm getting into areas that I don't know anything about.

Is a 'water curtain' the best kind of scrubber to use? Does anyone have experience with these or with alternatives? What are the pros and cons?

My next question involves the exhaust ducting. As I said before, the Bewley wants a 10 foot stack with no bends. Since I'm going to have to feed this through a scrubber (which will clearly impact draw) and then through a pretty substantial distance of ducting before the exhaust exit point, I assume Im going to need some sort of pull fan. Problem is, I have no idea what kind of fan I need, or even the amount of draw the Bewley has under ideal conditions.

I was thinking of ordering a flow meter and having it sent over to the boys at Bewley. With this they could monitor the draw that their smoker wants in a perfect world, and then match that using a flow meter and a variable speed fan on my system over in Singapore. Is this stupid? What kind of flow meter should I use? Am I totally overthinking this?

Anyway, thanks to anyone who made it all the way through this. Id really appreciate any input, or if anyone can point me in the direction of a BBQ joint thats gotten around similar issues that would be great too. I already shot off an email to Delaney in Williamsburg but they haven't gotten back to me yet.

Thanks a bunch

Elliott

 

[kc5tpy]

Hello Elliott and welcome to the fun.  I don't think you are "over thinking" this at all!  What are the tolerances they allow?  What other technical variables do we not know about?  

  I only recently found out that here in England they have "smoke free zones" where zero smoke output is allowed.  One of our U.K. members was going to open a place near his home but then found out that was not possible, or at least not financially practical.  I would think your best bet is to hire an engineering firm from Singapore and have them design the airflow system.  They will have the local experience and could liaise with the engineers at Bewley.  They would speak the same " airflow" language.  This would not be cheap but if you design and build it yourself and get it wrong, you will not be allowed to open and then have the extra expense of tearing it out and putting it right.  That's the only advice I can offer.  Maybe my "bump" will get you more ideas.  Good luck.  Keep Smokin!

Danny

 

[bmaddox]

 
Hello Elliott and welcome to the fun.  I don't think you are "over thinking" this at all!  What are the tolerances they allow?  What other technical variables do we not know about?  

  I only recently found out that here in England they have "smoke free zones" where zero smoke output is allowed.  One of our U.K. members was going to open a place near his home but then found out that was not possible, or at least not financially practical.  I would think your best bet is to hire an engineering firm from Singapore and have them design the airflow system.  They will have the local experience and could liaise with the engineers at Bewley.  They would speak the same " airflow" language.  This would not be cheap but if you design and build it yourself and get it wrong, you will not be allowed to open and then have the extra expense of tearing it out and putting it right.  That's the only advice I can offer.  Maybe my "bump" will get you more ideas.  Good luck.  Keep Smokin!

Danny

Danny has a great point about hiring an engineer. I work in the construction industry and when you start talking about desired CFM rates, duct sizes, etc it gets pretty complicated and always requires a mechanical engineer to figure out.

Good luck.