Sam Clayton wrote:

When they make Maple syrup they boil off the water in order to concentrate the
sugars in the sap. The question is: Could you save money by setting up a vacuum
to lower the boiling point? Would seem that with a lot less heat you could just
vacuum the steam away. Would it work and would it be worth doing?


It is done that way, but for cane and beet sugars. It was invented by
the son of slave to create a safer work environment for slaves:

http://www.africanamericans.com/NorbertRillieux.htm

The process not only uses vacuum to boil evaporate the stuff, but it
uses the heat released by condensing spent vapor to heat the syrup.

Apparantly it's not used for maple sugar, though:
http://www.edsanders.com/lan028.htm.

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Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com