Hello and good day. In my jurisdiction we have a small vodka distillery wanting to move into one unit of a vacant warehouse. Two pressure vessels they want to use in their process do not have any listing information on them or true testing information. One of the distillery owners relatives is an Engineer and has provided a letter stating that the pressure vessel has "food grade" valves on it and that the vessels themselves are again "food grade" unused stainless steel vessels. We do not want to see the vessels blow up and are requiring some actual testing to ASME pressure vessel standards. However, the proposed owners have contacted a local council person whom is applying a bit of political pressure to get the distillery accepted as is. The operating pressure will be in excess of 15 psig. Are we out of line? What area of this pressure vessel code would be best to point to for compliance?

Thanks for your help.

Stan

Stan,

the rules at the location of installation are governing the applicable Code.
What is your location?

When the pressure of the distiller exceeds 15 psig, this can become a dangerous machine.

Food grade sounds nice, that is a beer can as well, and I would not want to really pressurize this.

DK

You are so right DK. I am in Northern Colorado. The claim now in the process is that the vessel concerned is to operate at atmosphereic pressure only, a safety pressure relief valve is being installed only in case there would be any problems. They are getting us an engineers letter on the tanks that are to be used. Stay tuned please!!

Stan

Stan,

as per the synopsis http://www.nationalboard.org/SiteDocuments/NB-370.pdf your state requires the distill to have u stamping and a UV stamped safety valve.

maybe you can get a special approval from:
STATE DEPARTMENT
Susan DeMeules, Program Manager
Steve Nelson, Chief Boiler Inspector
Department of Labor and Employment
Division of Oil and Public Safety
633 17th Street
Suite 500
Denver, CO 80202-3660
Telephone — 303.318.8484 Email — steve.v.nelson@state.co.us
Fax — 303.318.8488 Web site — http://oil.cdle.state.co.us/Boiler/Boiler%20home.asp


The idea of running the vessel in violation of the rules is not really recommended.

Take care

DK