 Freeze concentration as a technique is widely used in beverage industry,
such as coffee,
tea, wine, milk, beer, fruit juices etc., for reducing volume to be handled
during storage,
transportation and sale. The beverage industry's demand for high quality
products at
acceptable prices generally drives the development of new process technologies.
Prof. M.V. Rane and his student of Department of Mechanical Engineering
have invented
an energy efficient, simple and inexpensive Freeze Concentration System
(FCS). The system
can be used to selectively freeze solvent solutions using a heat pump.
The use of a
heat pump makes the process of freezing easier and the entire system now
does not
require a heat exchanger, recrystallizer and wash column as it was used
to be in the past
for the same process.
Water removal is the key to concentration of all food products. Various
methods are available
to remove water from liquid food products. Freeze Concentration namely
precision
water removal at freezing temperature ensures product quality at its
technical best. The
FCS has heat transfer surfaces to extract and deliver heat to freeze
the solvent and melt the frozen solvent using a heat
pump. An energy efficient layer freezing process is adopted. The device
can have sets of heat extracting and delivering
surfaces which work together to freeze and melt surfaces as to concentrate
the solution in a batch or continuous process
of liquid freezing process. The system has a low temperature difference
between evaporator and condenser thus increasing
efficiency. It has minimum number of conduits, pumps and controls, making
it more efficient. In the flow through
system, liquid can be introduced at the start point and concentrate can
be collected at the end point of the system without
need to recirculate concentrate.
The process of freezing and extracting
a more concentrated solution was
known, but with the currently devised
FCS has made the process better, more efficient and more affordable to
industry.
Indian patent application no. 1000/MUM/2002 Patent grant no. 204956
Inventors: M V Rane and S Jabade
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