1. Describe the production processing plant with the help of a process diagram.

Pumpkin seeds are received in the bay of the production plant. The seeds go through the first
stage of preparation using the following production process:

a) Cleaning and Sorting

The process of pre-cleaning of sunflower/pumpkin seed is done to remove foreign
materials such as stones, sticks, leaves or dirt as well as impurities for bulk seeds. This is
done mechanically by using double sieve or vibro-separator with air recycling aspirator.
Sorting is done to separate large seeds that are easily dehulled from small immature seeds
where the hulls adhere to the kernels and are difficult to remove

b) Dehulling of seeds and cleaning

Removing of the hulls from the kernels is done by deshelling machine. The seeds are
allowed to agitate at a slow speed in a mixer fitted with the disc type blade for 30
seconds. The dehulled product is winnowed for the separation of the kernels, hull and
unhulled seeds. The seeds are later washed and dried to remove excess moisture and for
ease of roasting operation.

c) Roasting
After Dehulling, the seeds are roasted to produce flavour and also kill microbiological
contamination. Roasting is done at temperatures between 80ºC and
90ºC allowing for moisture reduction of between to 2%. It is at the roasting stage that the
kernel undergoes physiochemical and biochemical changes and this process takes
approximately 15 minutes.

d) Cooling
This is done to stop the changes that occur at high temperatures and avoiding the kernels
to become dark and bitter. Air conditioning cooling services are used in this process.

e) Crushing or Milling
The kernels are now crushed to a uniform size in a grinding mill and a flour mixed with
grits also called is obtained to be mixed with the sugar solution. In this process the
braking of cell walls also releases some oil from the seeds.

In the second process in the candy production is the sugar preparation process.
f) Sugar solubilization.
The process includes a step of combining sugar, water, glycerol and corn syrup. The sugar
is preferably white granulated sugar; these are brought to boil in a double jacket pot with
agitator to ensure uniform temperatures while boiling. A concentrated syrup of 80% mass
is obtained after boiling at temperatures between 115ºC - 120ºC and evaporation of
excess moisture is done.
 To obtain the caramel mass, the concentrated syrup is reheated at higher temperatures of
170ºC which forms a richer flavor. A butter made out of sunflower oil or almond oil is
incorporated in the caramel syrup. To stabilize the mixture and avoid oil separation 1%
glycerol is added to the mixture. This also takes care of molding and improves shelf life of
the candy.

g) Molding
The crushed pumpkin seed is mixed with the cooked sugar mass. Cocoa or extra nuts may
also be added at this stage. These are mixed in a special mixing machine.
After homogenization, the mixture is mechanically kneaded and later molded into
containers with perforated bottoms to allow for oil to drain out. The mixture is left to
cool for about 12 hours until it is room temperature.

h) Cutting and packaging

The cooled mixture is cut into desired shapes and sizes and packaged into waxed paper,
aluminum foil, waxed cartons, metallic and plastic containers ready for dispatch to sales.
This marks the last operation in the production line. See Appendix 1.

Pumpkin seed

Cleaning

Dehulling
Water Sugar/Honey Honey Corn Syrup

Roasting

Boiling
Cooling

Grinding Concentration of syrup

of syrup

Crushed seed
mass Cooked sugar

Mixing

Molding

Packaging
2. Determine the outline, the appropriate mix of unit operations for your production with the
help of a matrix. Establish both the material balance and energy balance for your production
process based on reasonable assumptions
a) Cleaning and sorting: It is assumed that 1% of the initial products is removed as impurities, and
that 10% max separated fraction of low quality seed for ease of dehulling. Assuming that the
process is started with 1000kg of pumpkin seed, then:

Sraw cleaning SC Sorting SST

Impurities SREJ
Where;

SRAW: Raw seed SC: Seed after cleaning

SST: Sorted seed SREJ: Rejected seed.

Therefore, the overall mass balance of the cleaning and the sorting steps are

(i) SRAW= SC + Impurities

(ii) SC = SREJ + SST

Giving,

SC = 0.99* 1000kg=990kg

SST=0.9*990kg=891kg

b) Dehulling: It is assumed that a max of 8% hulls is extracted and a max of 1.6% is

accounted for the kernels that are lost in the hulls. Total losses during this unit process
amounts to 9.6%.

SST Dehulling SKN

Hulls and Kernel losses in hulls

Where;

SKN: Seed kernels

SST: Sorted seed

Letting H be Hulls and kernels lost in hulls, the overall mass balance of the dehulling process

(iii) SST = SKN + H

SKN = SST – H

=891 - (0.096 *891) = 805.464kg

SKN = 805.464kg

c) Washing: Assuming that a max 3% of the initial mass is removed to increase the degree
of kernels bulk purity, and 200 kg is used to wash the kernels;
WW1
The overall mass balance is

SKN Washing SKNW

WW2
(iv) SKN+Ww1 = SKNW + Ww2
SKNW= 0.97 SKN
SKNW = 0.97*805.464 = 781.3 kg
Therefore,
805.464+200 = 781.3+ Ww2
Ww2=224.164kg

Where;

SKN: Seed kernels Ww1: Water used for washing

SKNW: Seed kernels after washing Ww2: Waste water

d) Drying: Assuming that the seed kernels after washing contain 40% moisture and there is
of 10% moisture reduction, also that there is no loss in mass of total solids (TS), the seed
kernels will be SKD.

Where;

MR: Moisture Reduction

SKNW: Seed Kernels after washing

SKD: Seed kernels after drying

SKNW= MR + SKD

Therefore, weight of solids in = weight of solids out

TS = Total solids = 60%

=781.3 × 0.60

=468.78kg

Let the weight of the product be X.kg

Therefore, if 30% the product will be water. It then contains 70% total solids.

Therefore:

0.7 x 468.78 kg
= =669.7 kg
0.7 0.7

X = weight of product = 669.7 kg

Weight of water= weight of product – weight of solids in product

669.7 – 46+8.78 = 200.9kg

 Weight of water in product = 200.9kg

Water Removed = 781.3kg – 669.7kg = 111.6 kg

e) Roasting: during this unit process, assuming that there is no loss in mass of solids and
there is a 28% reduction in moisture, the overall mass balance will be

MR = Moisture reduction

SKD: Seed Kernels after drying

SKR: Seed Kernels after Roasting

Water in kernels = 0.3 × 669.7 = 200.9kg

Weight of solids 468.78 kg

Let X be the weight of the protect

468.78 kg
0.98x
0.98

SKR = X =478.3 kg

Weight of water removed

669.7 – 478.3 = 191.4 kg

f) Cooling: The seed kernels after roasting are left cooled from an initial temperature of
90-120˚C to a final temperature of 40-60˚C with a production moisture of 2%. Assuming
there is no loss is mass;
then the overall mass balance is
Mass input = Mass output
SKR= SKC = 478kg

SKN Cooling SKNW

g) Grinding: Assuming no losses in solid mass the material balance is

Where;

SKC: Seed Kernel after Cooling

SKG: Seed Kernel after Grinding

The mass balance of the unit process is;

SKC =SKG = 478.3kg

f) Preparation of syrup: We assume that the parameters of the glucose syrup are DE=40%
and dry content = 80%, that is, 100kg of glucose syrup contain 40kg*0.8=32kg of reducing sugar.
The recipe is then;

77kg sugar,

18.75 (wet) glucose syrup,

3kg glycerol,

23-27kg water for dissolution,

Yielding 100kg sugar mass.

Therefore, to make 300kg of sugar mass, the ingredients are tripled to satisfy the 6:4 ratio
needed when mixing with the tahini. water

Water

Glucose Syrup
Boiler SPRE Evaporator
SCONC
glycerol

Sugar
The overall mass balance is therefore;

Water + Sugar + glycerol + Sugar = SPRE

81+56+9+234=380kg

Where SPRE is preconcentrated syrup.

Total soluble mass:

Sugar + glucose syrup + Glycerol powder = Total soluble mass

234 + (65*0.8) + 9 = 287 kg

The preconcentrated syrup is then passed through an evaporator to increase the dry mass from
73% to at least 95% dry matter.

The overall mass balance in the evaporator is then ;

SPRE = Water+ SCONC

Where SCONC is the Caramel mass.

If SCONC is 95% dry mass, then

0.95 * SCONC = 287kg,

SCONC =302.1kg

Then the water lost during evaporation is

380 - 302.1 = 77.9kg.

h) Caramel mass beating: The caramel mass is then beat using a beating machine to a
density of 1.1 kg.dm-3 with a temperature of 70 to 80˚C. Assuming no mass is lost, then
SCONC=CS = 302.1
Where CS is cooked sugar. water

Beating
SPRE SCONC
 i) Component mixing: The cooked sugar and tahini are then mixed with a 4:6 cooked sugar
/ tahini ratio. Hence 300kg:450kg

CS = Cooked Sugar

SKG = Seed Kernel after Grinding

H = Halva mass

Overall mass balance;

Cs + SKG = H
300 + 450 =750 kg
 Hence , the PFD with the material balance is:

seed impurities
Cleaning
1000kg
1%
990k

Sorting Small low-quality seeds

10%
891kg
Hulls + Kernel loses in hulls
Dehulling
8% + 1.6%
805.464 kg
Water Waste water
Washing
200kg 30%
781.3kg
Moisture reduction
Drying
10%
234kg 56.25kg 669.7kg
81kg 9kg
Water Sugar Glucose Moisture reduction
Glycerol
syrup Roasting
28%
478.3kg

Boiling Cooling
380kg
478.3kg

Concentrated syrup Grinding Excess tahini mass

28.3kg
302kg 450kg

Cooked Sugar mixing

300kg
750kg

Molding
Excess cooked sugar mass
2kg

Packing
Functional sketch of Layout for Production Plant

Receiving Seeds Cleaning Dehulling and

winnowing

Mixing Crushing Roasting kernels

Molding Cooling Cutting and packaging

To Sales