I.

Homogenizers

The outlet stream from the Hammer Mill Crusher will be the dried orange peels with a
particle size of less than 2 mm. In order to avoid any variation in the composition, the orange
peel will be fed to a homogenizer and will be mixed with water and Aspergillus Niger inoculum
culture. A homogenizer is a process in which coarse globules in emulsion are converted into
smaller globules of uniform composition, so that each measured dose has the same
composition. It is based on the principle that when large globules in coarse emulsion are passed
under high pressure through a narrow orifice are broken into smaller globules having a greater
degree of uniformity and stability (Ahmed, 2017). The current processes or methods of
homogenizing can be broken down into three (3) major categories:

 Ultrasonic Homogenizing
 Pressure Homogenizing
 Mechanical Homogenizing
A. Ultrasonic Homogenizers
These devices work by generating intense sonic pressure waves in a liquid media. The
pressure waves cause streaming in the liquid and, under the right conditions, rapid
formation of micro-bubbles which grow and coalesce until they reach their resonant size,
vibrate violently, and eventually collapse.

B. Pressure Homogenizers
This type of homogenizer works by forcing cell suspensions through a very narrow
channel or orifice under pressure. Subsequently, and depending on the type of high-
pressure homogenizer, they may or may not impinge at high velocity on a hard-impact ring
or against another high-velocity stream of cells coming from the opposite direction.

C. Mechanical Homogenizers
Mechanical Homogenizers can be broken down into two separate categories: Rotor-Stator
Homogenizers, and Blade Type Homogenizers.
 i. Rotor-Stator Homogenizers
Rotor-stator homogenizers (also called colloid mills or Willems homogenizers)
generally outperform cutting blade-type blenders and are well suited for plant and
animal tissue. Combined with glass beads, the rotor-stator homogenizer has been
successfully used to disrupt microorganisms. However, the homogenized sample is
contaminated with minute glass and stainless steel particles and the abrasive wear to
the rotor-stator homogenizer is unacceptably high. Cell disruption with the rotor-stator
homogenizer involves hydraulic and mechanical shear as well as cavitation. The
variables to be optimized for maximum efficiency are as follows:
 Design and size of rotor-stator (generator)
 Rotor tip speed
 Initial size of sample
 Viscosity of medium
 Time of processing or flow rate
 Volume of medium and concentration of sample
 Shape of vessel and positioning of rotor-stator

ii. Blade Type Homogenizers

Although less efficient than rotor-stator homogenizers, blade homogenizers (also called
blenders) have been used for many years to produce fine brie and extracts from plant
and animal tissue. The cutting blades on this class of homogenizer are either bottom or
top driven and rotate at speeds of 6,000 to 50,000 rpm.

For the nature of the feed, the chosen type of homogenizer is the Rotor-Stator Homogenizer.
In a study conducted by Adi Tjipto Utomo, the flow patterns and energy dissipation rates in batch
stator mixers were observed. Silverson stators are commercially available stators and are
characterized by high speed rotors surrounded closely by stators. The rotors rotate at an order of
magnitude higher speed than impellers in stirred tank with typical tip speeds range from 10 to 50
m/s while the gaps between the rotors and stators vary from 100 to 3000 µm. They can generate
high shear rate in the gap ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 s-1 (and therefore they are usually called
high shear mixers. Rotor stator mixers also generate high intensity of turbulence. High kinetic
energy supplied by the rotor dissipates mainly inside the stator and therefore the local energy
dissipation rate in a rotor-stator mixer can be three orders of magnitude higher than in a
conventional stirred vessel. The assembly of the rotor and stator is often called the mixing head,
working head or generator, but the stator itself is often called the head.

Figure 1: (a) Batch (b) in-line rotor mixers (www.silverson.com)

II. Material and Energy Balance

III. Design of Rotor-Stator Mixer

A fully continuous mode of production is often desired in most types of industrial processing.
Continuous production decreases per unit cost of production and reduces the risk of quality
differences between batches. However, batch processing is still commonly employed in many
production lines, especially in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics sectors (Hakansson, 2018).
 Figure 2: Schematic drawings of rotor-stator mixers (RSMs) operated in continuous (a) and
batch (b) mode of operation (Hakansson, 2018)

Figure 3: Schematics of RSMs for use in continuous (A) and batch (B) mode of operation
(Hakansson, 2018)
The selection of the mode of operation greatly affects the orientation of the rotor-stator,
however the mode of operation in the production of citric production was selected to be batch.
 A. Rotor-Stator Head
Although there are many different rotor-stator designs, they can broadly be classified into
two groups based on the rotor: teeth-designs and blade-designs. A schematic diagram of two
design principles is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Schematic representation of a rotor-stator head with (a) blade-design and (b) teeth-
design
As seen in the figure, the blade-design uses a rotor similar to that found in a centrifugal
pump, either extending all the way from the shaft or with shorter blades mounted on a plate
attached to the rotor. The teeth-design uses a circular plate-mounted rotor, as seen in Figure 4.

B. Shaft Power Draw

The economic benefit of using an RSM depends on the power draw, Pshaft, required to
operate the rotor shaft at a given speed. A batch RSM is principally an impeller mixer, and the
power draw of such systems have been under scientific investigation since the 1880s. From
dimensional analysis, it has been suggested that shaft power scales with rotor speed (N), rotor
diameter (D), and fluid density (ρ):

 N 3 D5
Pshaft 
Np

The power number Np is often found to be in the range of 1-3, depending on the geometry of
the rotor-stator head (Paul, Atiemo-Obeng, & Kresta, 2004).
C. RSM Flowrate and Pumping

The net flowrate passing through the stator holes, Q, can be described in terms of a flow-
number, NQ, via:

Q
NQ 
ND3

This applies for both batch and continuous modes of operation. However, it should be noted
that the interpretation and controllability of this value differ substantially between the two
modes. When the mixer is operated in batch mode, NQ is a constant that depends on the
geometry of the mixing head, and to some degree on the tank geometry. The NQ parameter is
important for batch RSMs since it determines how fast the liquid is mixed. More specifically
the expectation value for the time a fluid element spends in the tank between two passages of
the rotor-stator head is:

V VT
 T 
Q NQ ND3

Where VT is the tank liquid volume.

D. Pumping and Turbulent Dissipation Efficiency