Mindanao State University

Iligan Institute of Technology

A Plant Design for Vegetable Sheet Production from Discarded and Over-
produced Vegetable Crops

A Plant Design
Presented to
The Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology
College of Engineering and Technology
MSU – Iligan Institute of Technology

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

By
Vincent Niño E. Bayotlang
Kier Wayne P. Delima
Lyre Rusty S. Vega

January 2020
 Mindanao State University
Iligan Institute of Technology

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background ...................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Objectives ...................................................................................................... 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .......................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Raw Materials ...................................................................................................... 4

2.1.1 Seaweeds ...................................................................................................... 4

2.1.2 Vegetable Crops ...................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Raw Materials Processing ...................................................................................................... 6

2.2.1 Crops and Seaweeds Receiving and Washing Process ................................................ 6

2.2.2 Seaweeds/Agar Extraction .......................................................................................... 6

2.2.3 Vegetable Crops (for Liquefaction) ............................................................................. 9

2.3 Mixing, Sheeting, and Heating Process ................................................................................ 10

2.4 Product .................................................................................................... 11

2.5 Waste Treatment .................................................................................................... 11

2.6 Market Study .................................................................................................... 11

2.7 Plant Location .................................................................................................... 12

LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 13

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Agriculture is what makes us moving as humans. Food, raw and processed
materials, livestock and etc. are derived from this form of combined arts and science. It
is literally what feeds us: Vegetable crops, rice and corn crops and etc.

Although we are teeming in stock, most of them are sold underpriced and many
are discarded right after or before harvest: post-harvest, production, and processing
losses due to problems such as insect damage, machine damage, undersize or oversize
that doesn’t fit with the general yet strict standards of the market. Also, there is this
problem of over production, that leaves farmers to give for a bargain to the market just
to sell all of their crops, but in a lower-than-expected profit.

The idea is to turn in all discarded crops and processed it as a food which is
aesthetically sound and tasteful, has long shelf-life, and can be easily packaged.

The vegetable sheet is a processed food derived mainly from crops, agar, and
water. This is produced as sheets which can be stored until 1 – 2 years. This feature is
beneficial to the plant as it allows the product to be stockpiled for a long period of time,
without affecting the quality. The vegetable sheet can be used/consumed as a snack,
wartime-shelter food source due to easy storage, as additional aesthetic flair to current
recipes, and possibly a food storage.

The process mainly involves the production of food-grade-agar, mixing of agar

with the liquefied crop and water, and the sheeting process. Candidates of vegetable
crops to be used are either:

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1. Post-harvest discarded crops due to physical damage (cracks, punctures,
abrasion, weight loss, mechanical damage)
2. Overproduced vegetable crops that goes underpriced or thrown

The plant is not viable to operate under one kind of postharvest discarded crop
as it is the same to start directly the plant operation would cater more than one kind of
postharvest discarded crops; also, to account, vegetable crops have seasons of produce,
meaning supply will not be available evenly throughout the year. For this situation, the
researchers have chosen good variant candidates as to suffice. But for stability of inflow
of raw material, it is chosen in plant to accommodate 3 – 5 variety of local vegetable
crops. The initial candidate for the testing is carrot, as it is proven to be liquefiable
easily, other crop candidates are cabbage, tomato, eggplant, and onions. According to a
study done by Mopera (2016), these are the crops with a high percent of postharvest
losses and potential raw materials. Some of these discarded crops are intentionally
usable but aesthetically rejected in the market.

1.2 Objectives
The prime objective of the study is to design an optimal plant that can produce
vegetable sheet that is nutritious and economical.

Specifically, the objectives are:

1. To ensure the usability of the incoming crops through monitoring if the

crops doesn’t contain defects that exceed the to the imperfections
tolerated by the process.
2. To ensure a mix design that would result to a product that is aesthetically
sound, has great taste, nutritious, and have long shelf-life being able to
be stored for a long time, in such logistics would be a less issue.

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3. To effectively maximize the materials and energy consumption of the
plant by strategizing the factors present in the process to come out with
an optimal input of materials and energy.
4. To effectively design a plant that is hygienic and safe for the purpose
that the product being produced is perishable and be contaminated
5. To produce a product that is nutritious, delicious, and aesthetically sound
right from production until brought or bought to the end-users.

The design constraints are the following:

1. Aseptic Conditions are assumed in the design, and Sanitary and Safety
comes only in a matter of maintaining the said conditions.
2. The design assumes that all raw materials meet the grounds for usage
and any imperfections (within the grounds) would not affect the quality
of the final product, nor hinder any processes.
3. Any operational/mechanical problem independent of the process that
may arise from the plant shall not be taken for consideration.

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Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Raw Materials

2.1.1 Seaweeds

For the creation of agar, there are two species of seaweeds that can be
utilized: both have different workarounds but produces almost the same results.
Gracilaria and Gelidium are the two popular and widely used species of alga
that can produce carrageenan and agar.

The extraction process of the two species may vary from autoclave
extraction to water bath extraction depending on the specie being handled;
varying temperature, pressure or both. For the plant design, it is favorable for the
controlled variable to be temperature rather than pressure involved, as generally
pressure controlling and generating equipment are costly.

Gracilaria

Gracilaria is a species of seaweeds that can produce agar and can

be locally found within the country (Philippines). Gracilaria spp. can
have agar yield of 8 to 31 % agar (Rejeki et al., 1996). The extraction
process of Gracilaria start with alkaline pre-treatment, in which 2 – 5 %
sodium hydroxide soln. is added to the seaweed and subjected to
temperature of about 85-90oC for about one hour. After the pre-treatment
the seaweed is washed with water or weak acid solution (to neutralize
residual alkali). The Gracilaria seaweed proceeds to extraction, in which
the seaweed is added with water and subjected to temperatures about 95-
100oC for 2 – 4 hours (McHugh, 2003).

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Gelidium

Gelidium specie has a general agar yield ranging from 15 – 36%

agar content. Compared to the Gracilaria specie, Gelidium is relative
more resistant to extraction with hot-water extraction temperatures of
105-110oC for 2-4 hours under pressure needed for faster extraction
time. Aside from temperature and pressure requirement, Gelidium differs
from Gracilaria as Gelidium doesn’t require alkali pre-treatment. The
remainder of the process is the same with the aforementioned.

2.1.2 Vegetable Crops

There are many post-harvest losses to variety of crops. Majority of this

factors comes from the aesthetic state of the crops as the general market is strict
with the appearance; albeit the fact that some of the imperfections does not
readily contribute to decrease on the usability, quality, or nutritive value of the
crops. Such imperfections may be from crack cut, punctures, abrasions, cut,
forking, damage top leaves, mechanical damage, or weight loss.

A study from Mopera et. al. (2016) shows the data of the post-harvest
losses and grounds for re-usage.

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Crop Post-harvest losses
Imperfections (usable)
(vegetable) (%)

Crack cut, punctures, abrasion, cuts,

Carrot 7 – 12
forking, damaged top leaves

Cabbage 29 Mechanical damage

Eggplant 10 – 40 Insect damage, weight loss

Tomato 11 – 38 Weight loss

Onion 35 Mechanical damage

Table 1: Post-Harvest losses and Grounds for re-usage. Excerpts from Mopera, L. E.
(n.d.). Food Loss in the Food Value Chain: The Philippine Agriculture Scenario Lotis E.
Mopera* Institute of. Journal of Developments in Sustainable Agriculture.

Given that the imperfections are within the said grounds for reuse, the crops can
be used as raw materials.

2.2 Raw Materials Processing

2.2.1 Crops and Seaweeds Receiving and Washing Process

In the Receiving process, the usual doing is the ocular inspection of the
receiving materials to confirm the legibility to be used in the process. For crops
this is intensive as ocular inspection is needed to confirm that all defects are in
the tolerable range of what the plant can receive.

2.2.2 Seaweeds/Agar Extraction

The entire process is to effective extract the agar content from the
seaweed through a series of subprocesses.

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Extraction of Agar
Extraction of agar is heating of selected kind of seaweeds in
water for hours. Agar is then dissolved into the water, debris is then
filtered, and the filtrate will have 1% agar. The heating procedure and the
time needed is variable depending on the kind of agar used: Gelidium
and Gracilaria.
Gelidium
Gelidium is generally more resistant towards extraction
and needed to be heated up to 105-110oC for 2 – 4 hours
(McHugh, 2003).
Gracilaria
Before extraction process, the Gracilaria is to undergo
alkaline pre-treatment, in which 2 – 5 percent sodium hydroxide
solution is added to the seaweed and subjected to temperature of
about 85-90oC for about one hour. After the pre-treatment, alkali
is removed and seaweed is washed, and then proceed to the
extraction, in which the Gracilaria is added with water and
subjected to temperatures about 95-100oC for 2 – 4 hours
(McHugh, 2003).

Filtration of Agar

Coarse filtration is done to remove the seaweed residue, and

extract is then pumped through a filter press equipped with filter cloth.
The filtrate will gel when cooled, so it is better maintaining the hot
temperature during the filtration process (McHugh, 2003).

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Gelation

Gelation of Agar involves cooling the filtrate, forming gels, in

which in turn is broken into pieces. The gel comprises one percent agar,
and 99 percent combination of salts, coloring matter and soluble
carbohydrates. The gel may be soaked in water to remove remaining
salts present (McHugh, 2003).

Bleaching (optional)
Bleaching is done to remove the inherent color of the agar gel
mixture with addition of sodium hypochlorite (McHugh, 2003).

Syneresis

A process to remove all the water in the agar-water mixture.

Same phenomenon for a jam in its container that is left stored for a
while: a liquid of layer shall sit above the jam later on. The process is
technically the same with the phenomenon, but assisted by pressure for
the separation of agar. Two-grooved plates are covered with layers of
porous cloth, in which the agar gel shall be situated in between:
sandwiched by the cloths and the metal plates. Then pressure is applied
through the hydraulic ram. After application of pressure, the pressed gel,
with now 20% percent agar, is peeled from the cloth, shredded, and dried
before milling (McHugh, 2003).

Milling

In this process the dried agar shall undergo size-reduction to

usually about 80 – 100 mesh size (McHugh, 2003).

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2.2.3 Vegetable Crops (For Liquefaction)

Before the mixing process, the raw crops are reformed into a state in
which it can be dissolved with the agar and water at the mixing. In this process,
the prime motive is to effectively produce high juice yield at a short period of
time, reason being is that this process still belongs to the materials preparation
and high lag at the preparations part would be unfavorable given that the
materials are perishable. Lengthy food process that could be involved in the
design like fermentation is discouraged.

In line with the perishable foods, the general correlation for the output of
this process is the final acidity and shelf life, as it would be favorable for the
output to have lower pH to prolong the shelf-life.

Carrots

Carrot shake has been one of the known healthy beverages, that
may only involves only blending of carrot at high rpm. This sole process
is workable yet inefficient; even when pressing (or filter pressing) the
pomace right after. From the study of Demir et. al. (2007), the
liquefaction solely with mechanical intervention only produced 59.90%
juice yield. For the study, there are three different stages that are added
into the process: Lactic acid bacteria fermentation, citric acid addition,
and pectolytic enzyme addition. Based on the results, the study confirms
improvement upon introduction of stages, and the highest yield comes
with the addition of citric acid to control acidity into 4.50 pH, followed
by the addition of pectolytic enzyme 0.1% Pectinex Ultra SP-L, mixed
for 60 minutes at a controlled temperature of 35oC. The juice yield with
the aforementioned process is about 90.43%. Comes after the highest
yield is the lacto-fermentation stage then addition of pectolytic enzyme

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producing 89.32% yield. But According to Sharma et. al (2016), such
breakdown can be observed by adding agar or gelatin mixture.

Cabbage

One famous practice involving liquefaction of cabbage is

beverage called sauerkraut, which specifically involved liquefaction and
fermentation (more like liquefied kimchi). The practice proves that
cabbage can be liquefied for plant process. From a study of Omran et. al
(1989), the cabbages were tested and subject with different enzymes
under the objective to increase process efficiency and enhance the
nutritional value. The highest juice yield of 90% was observed upon
addition of 0.2% Pectinex Ultra SP-L at a final pH of 5.0. Technically,
what would have happened if the pectolytic enzyme is not added, there
would be little to none liquefaction happening in the cabbage.

Tomato and etc.

Tomato can be liquefied by only physical means, especially in

the locule tissue when the tomato reaches ripeness. In the study of
Sharma et. al. (2016), that the further liquefaction can be done upon
addition of agar or gulaman.

2.3 Mixing, Sheeting, and Heating Process

This process is the core of the plant. The processed agar, liquefied crops, and
water are added and mixed. After the sheeting process, the water and the heat added to
the mixture should not be high enough for the mixture to gel.

Correlations to mix design, sheeting and heating time are still studied by the
researchers as this technology is rather new. We will update the correlations as soon as
possible.

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2.4 Product

The expected outcome of the product is a vegetable sheet made out of vegetable
crops and agar, that is thin and crisp upon finishing heating or drying. This can be eaten
directly, or could serve as wrapper or any culinary purpose for either nutrition or
aesthetic flair. The product can also be hydrated to become a gulaman-like delicacy that
can served soft and jelly. The hydrated form would be a beneficial delicacy for the aged
people, and could serve as a delicious fun meal for the children. Being packed in sheets,
this makes the product compact and be stored in large quantities with lesser volume
occupied. It could serve as a best option for relief goods as logistics is a less hassle with
compact supplies. With an expected food shelf-life of 1 year or more, it could be a good
doomsday food in a moderate exaggeration, or simply good for logistics and may serve
as simple emergency resource as well.

2.5 Waste Treatment

In general, there are no waste generated as possibly the entirety of the crops are
utilized in the process. But water washings and cleanings may bring tidbits of crop
debris may find its way into the water stream or worse cases discarding of rejected pre-
processed mixture due to complications. The worse of it can do is algal bloom. The
waste treatment will come at the form of BOD-reducing processes such as activated
sludge process and clarification process to remove debris from the water.

2.6 Market Study

The prime market for this venture started at Japan, with the product called
Vegheets (vegewel.com, n.d), brainchild of Keisuke Soda. There is no solid data
inferring to the total market share of this kind of industry as it is at its prime stages. As
for the Philippines, this is a new venture project: no market and plant production are

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known to produce the said product, and little information about the importation of like
products.

2.7 Plant Location

As a food processing plant, cool climate, a good rally point for redistribution
and logistics, and near to a good reliable power source plant may include to the factors
the researchers have for the plant design. A gamble is given to the locations near Brgy.
Ditucalan and Brgy. Maria Cristina, Iligan City due to elevations having cool local
climate; vicinity of Iligan has a seaport as a point of materials receiving and logistics;
and near in an electrical substation that could cater electricity, respectively.

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LIST OF REFERENCES
Demir, N., Bahçeci, K. S., & Acar, J. (2007). The Effect Of Processing Method On The
Characteristics Of Carrot Juice. Journal of Food Quality, 30(5), 813–822. doi:
10.1111/j.1745-4557.2007.00164.

Gelidium (PROSEA). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://uses.plantnet-

project.org/en/Gelidium_(PROSEA)

Martinez, L. A., & Buschmann, A. H. (1996). Agar yield and quality of Gracilaria
chilensis (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) in tank culture using fish effluents.
Hydrobiologia, 326-327(1), 341–345. doi: 10.1007/bf00047828

McHugh, D. J. (2003). A guide to the seaweed industry. Rome: Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations.
Mopera, L. E. (n.d.). Food Loss in the Food Value Chain: The Philippine Agriculture
Scenario Lotis E. Mopera* Institute of. Journal of Developments in Sustainable
Agriculture.
Omran, H., Buckenhüskes, H., Zapp, B., & Gierschner, K. (1989). Technical enzymes
for the liquefaction of white cabbage and sauerkraut. Food Biotechnology, 3(1),
59–70. doi: 10.1080/08905438909549698

Rejeki, S., Ariyati, R. W., Widowati, L. L., & Bosma, R. H. (2018). The effect of three
cultivation methods and two seedling types on growth, agar content and gel
strength of Gracilaria verrucosa. The Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research,
44(1), 65–70. doi: 10.1016/j.ejar.2018.01.001

Sharma, H. P., Patel, H., & Sugandha. (2016). Enzymatic added extraction and
clarification of fruit juices–A review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and
Nutrition, 57(6), 1215–1227. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2014.977434

Vegetables in the form of sheets! The savior of modern-day dining. All about the
VEGHEETS, made from all-natural raw materials. - Vegan Recipes and the
Latest on Plant-based Items: Vegewel Style. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://vegewel.com/en/style/vegheet-2.

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