LIQUID CONCENTRATION
EVAPORATION MEMBRANE SEPRATIONS FREEZE CONCENTRATION
Concentration of liquid foods Concentration of liquid foods is a vital operation in many food processes. Concentration is deferent from dehydration,. Generally, foods that are concentrated remain in the liquid state, whereas drying produces solid or semisolid foods with significantly lower water content. Liquid Concentration Technologies Several technologies are available for liquid concentration in the food industry, with the most common being evaporation and membrane concentration. Freeze concentration is another technology that has been developed over the past few decades, although significant applications of freeze concentration of foods are limited.
Evaporation Concentration Evaporation concentration means removal of water by boiling. Evaporation finds application in a variety of food processing operations. A primary application is concentration of fruit juices (orange juice concentrate), vegetable juices (tomato pastes and purees), and dairy products (condensed milk). Evaporation is also used to concentrate salt and sugars prior to refining. Membrane Separation Concentration The basis for membrane separations is the difference in permeability of a semiporous membrane to different molecular sizes. Smaller molecules pass through these membranes more easily than larger ones. Since water is one of the smallest molecules, concentration is easily accomplished using membranes with appropriate molecular-weight cutoffs.
Freeze Concentration Water is partially frozen to produce an ice crystal slurry in concentrated product. Separation of ice crystals is then accomplished using some washing technique. Current applications of freeze concentration are limited to fruit juices, coffee, and tea extracts, and beer and wine. Freeze concentration produces a superior product Types of Evaporators
Short tube or Calandria Evaporator. Long Tube Vertical Rising Film Evaporator Long Tube Vertical Falling Film Evaporator Forced Circulation Evaporator. Wipe Film or Agitated Thin Film Evaporator. Plate Evaporator.
Centrifugal/Conical Evaporator.
Plate Evaporator
A series of metal plates and frames forms the heat exchange surface both product and steam are directed in alternate gaps. Evaporation can take place within the plate and frame system, or evaporation can be suppressed by maintaining sufficient pressure and allowing evaporation to occur as the heated product flashes into a lower pressure chamber.
Evaporator Configurations Single Effect Evaporation Multiple Effect Evaporation. Thermal Vapor Recompression. Mechanical Vapor Recompression.
Multiple-effect evaporation
In a two-stage evaporator, the vapors produced by evaporation of water in the first stage are fed into the steam chest of the second stage to provide further evaporation. Since there is no driving force. Thus, operating pressure in the second stage must be reduced to lower the boiling temperature.
MEMBRANE SEPRATIONS
Operation Principles Reverse Osmosis. Concentration polarization. Ultrafiltration.
Reverse osmosis is a process to separate solute and solvent components in the solution. Although the solvent is usually water, it is not necessarily restricted to water. The pore radius of the membrane is less than 1 nm. While solvent water molecules, whose radius is about one tenth of 1 nm, can pass through the membrane freely, electrolyte solutes, such as sodium chloride and organic solutes that contain more than one hydrophilic functional group in the molecule (sucrose, for example), can not pass though the membrane. These solutes are either rejected from the membrane surface, or they are more strongly attracted to the solvent water phase to the membrane surface.
The preferential sorption of water molecules at the solventmembrane interface, which is caused by the interaction force working between the membrane-solvent-solute, is therefore responsible for the separation. Polymeric materials such as cellulose acetate and aromatic polyamide are typically used for the preparation of reverse osmosis membranes. When a membrane is placed between pure water and an aqueous sodium chloride solution, water flows from the chamber filled with pure water to that filled with the sodium chloride solution, whereas sodium chloride does not flow (Figure 1a). As water flows into the sodium chloride solution chamber, the water level of the solution increases until the flow of pure water stops (Figure 1b) at the steady state.
The difference between the water level of the sodium chloride solution and that of pure water at the steady state, when converted to hydrostatic pressure, is called osmotic pressure. When a pressure higher than the osmotic pressure is applied to the sodium chloride solution, the flow of pure water is reversed: the flow from the sodium chloride solution to the pure water begins to occur. There is no flow of sodium chloride through the membrane. As a result, pure water can be obtained from the sodium chloride solution. The above separation process is called reverse osmosis. The most successful application of the reverse osmosis process is in the production of drinking water from seawater. This process is known as seawater desalination and is currently producing millions of gallons of potable water daily in the Middle East.
Fishing boats, ocean liners, and submarines also carry reverse osmosis units to obtain potable water from the sea. Ultrafiltration is a process based on the same principle as that of reverse osmosis. The main difference between reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration is that ultrafiltration membranes have larger pore sizes than reverse osmosis membranes, ranging from 1 to 100 nm. Ultrafiltration membranes are used for the separation and concentration of macromolecules and colloidal particles. Osmotic pressures of macromolecules are much smaller than those of small solute molecules, and therefore operating pressures applied in the ultrafiltration process are usually much lower than those applied in the reverse osmosis process.
Membranes having pore sizes between those for reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration membranes are sometimes called nanofiltration membranes. The size of the solute molecules that are separated from water, and the range of operating pressures, are also between those for reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration. Ultrafiltration membranes are prepared from polymeric materials such as polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyacrylonitrile, and cellulosic polymers. Inorganic materials such as alumina can also be used for ultrafiltration membranes. Typical applications of ultrafiltration processes are the treatment of electroplating rinse water, the treatment of cheese whey, and the treatment of waste water from the pulp and paper industry.
The pore sizes of microfiltration membranes are even larger than those of ultrafiltration membranes and range from 0.1 m (100 nm) to several m. The sizes of the particles separated by microfiltration membranes are therefore even larger than those separated by ultrafiltration membranes.
MEMBRANE SEPRATIONS
Membranes allow only certain molecules to pass through, effectively separating water molecules from other food constituents, Classification of membrane separations is based primarily on molecular size. reverse osmosis/ ultra/micro filtration. No vapor-liquid interface to cause the loss of volatile flavors and aromas Membranes tend to foul
Operation Principles
Separations in semipermeable membrane systems is based on forcing some of the molecules in the system through the membrane while retaining others on the feed side while larger molecules remain on the feed side (retentate).
MEMBRANE SYSTEMS
Membrane Materials Cellulose Acetate. Polymer membranes. Composite or Ceramic Membranes. Membrane Module Design Plate and frame. Spiral Wound. Tubular. Hollow Fiber.
Osmotic Pressure A salt solution and pure water are separated with a semipermeable membrane. Water migrates from the pure water into the saltwater. As this equilibrium is attained, the pressures on the two sides of the membrane are unequal, The difference in pressure between the two sides is the osmotic pressure. Reverse Osmosis To cause an increase in concentration of the salt solution , the pressure of the salt must be raised above the osmotic pressure. When the applied pressure on the salt side exceeds the osmotic pressure, water molecules begin to flow from the saltwater into the pure water. This is called reverse osmosis.
Reverse osmosis process Feed under high pressure, exceeding the osmotic pressure of the feed, contacts the membrane. Material that passes through it is the permeate, while material that does not pass through the membrane, is retentate. Since membranes are not perfectly selective, they allow some smaller solute molecules to pass through; the permeate is not pure water
Concentration Polarization Molecules that do not get through the membrane accumulate on the feed side. A boundary layer is built up at the membrane surface due to this solute rejection. Concentrations of factors 1.2 to 2 higher than the initial feed concentration can be developed in this polarization layer.
Ultrafiltration
Ultrafiltration use higher permeability membranes allowing small molecules to pass through and retain larger molecules. Larger molecules are retained and dissolved sugars and salts pass through. In the dairy industry, ultrafiltration is used to concentrate milk or whey, allowing everything but the proteins to pass through.
MEMBRANE SYSTEMS
Membrane Materials Cellulose Acetate/Polymer membranes/ Composite or Ceramic Membranes. Membrane Module Design Plate and frame/Spiral Wound/Tubular/ Hollow Fiber.
Cellulose Acetate
The membranes provide high permeate flux and good salt rejection in reverse osmosis. However, cellulose acetate breaks down at high temperatures, is pH sensitive (pH 5 to 6), and is broken down by Cl- ions. Since chlorine cleaners and sanitizers are commonly used in the food industry, the sensitivity of cellulose acetate membranes to chlorine has caused significant problems.
Polymer membranes
Polyamides provide better pH resistance than cellulose acetate. Polysulfones provide a good alternative, operate at a wide pH range (1 to 15), and have chlorine resistance (up to 50 ppm). They are easy be produced with a wide range of pore size cutoffs. But, these membranes do not withstand high pressures and are used almost exclusively for ultra-filtration
Problem
How to obtain high quality food product in evaporation concentration. How to lower the cost in liquid concentration operation.
Problem
Describe the principles of both evaporation and membrane concentration What are the differences between reverse osmosis and ultra-filtration. How to understand the membrane materials How to consider the membrane module design
Problem
Explain the principles of freeze concentration How to understand the operation of freeze concentration What are the advantages of freeze concentration and how to to obtain food in high quality economically.