UNIT OPERATIONS IN FOOD PROCESSING

• FLUID FLOW THEORY

• Many raw materials for foods and many finished foods are in the form of
fluids.
• The study of fluids can be divided into the study of - fluid statics, and -
fluid dynamics. Further subdivision into compressible fluids such as gases,
and incompressible fluids such as liquids.

• Fluids in the food industry vary considerably in their properties. They

include such materials as:

• Thin liquids - milk, water, fruit juices,

•
Thick liquids - syrups, honey, oil, jam,
•
Gases - air, nitrogen, carbon dioxide,
•
Fluidized solids - grains, flour, peas.
A very important property of a fluid at rest is the fluid
pressure

F=mg=Vρg in Newtons, kg m s-2

Pressure -Pascals,

The weight of the volume of fluid, exerts a force on the

area A which supports it and = ZρAg.

But the total force on the area A must also include any
additional force on the surface of the liquid. If the force
on the surface is Ps per unit area,

F=Aps + ZρAg
 VISCOSITY

From the fundamental definition of viscosity

F/A = mv /Z = m (dv/dz)=τ

where t (tau) is called the shear stress in the fluid.

Equation proposed by Newton and which is obeyed
by fluids such as water.

For many of the actual fluids encountered in the

food industry, measurements show deviations from
this simple relationship, and lead towards a more
general equation:

τ=k(dv/dz)n

A thixotropic fluid is a fluid which takes a finite time

to attain equilibrium viscosity when introduced to a
step change in shear rate. Some thixotropic fluids
return to a gel state almost instantly, such as
ketchup, and are called pseudoplastic fluids. Others
such as yogurt take much longer and can become
nearly solid. Many gels and colloids are thixotropic
materials, exhibiting a stable form at rest but
becoming fluid when
agitated.
ENERGY LOSSES IN FLOW

Frictional Loss
• DPf = (4frv2/2) x (L/D)

Eƒ = DPf/r = (2fv2)(L/D) Fanning equation

• The factor f in eqn depends upon the Reynolds number for the flow, and upon the roughness of the
pipe.

• Hagen-Poiseuille equation, which gives:

f = 16/(Re) 0 < (Re) < 2100.
• Blasius equation for smooth pipes 3000 < (Re)<100,000

• ƒ = 0.316( Re)-0.25
4
Energy Losses in Bends and Fittings
Eƒ = kv2/2
where k has to be found for the particular fitting. Values of this constant k for some fittings are known.

Pressure Drop through Equipment

• Fluids sometimes have to be passed through beds of packed solids; like in the air drying of granular
materials, hot air may be passed upward through a bed of the material.
• Food rheology
• Food rheology is important in the manufacture and
processing of food products, e.g. cheese.
• Thickening agents, or thickeners, are substances
which, when added to an aqueous mixture, increase
its viscosity without substantially modifying its other
properties, such as taste. They provide body,
increase stability, and improve suspension of added
ingredients. Thickening agents are often used as food
additives . Some thickening agents are gelling agents,
forming a gel. The agents are materials used to
thicken and stabilize liquid solutions, emulsions,
and suspensions. They dissolve in the liquid phase as
a colloid mixture that forms a weakly cohesive
internal structure. Food thickeners frequently are
based on either polysaccharides (starches, vegetable
gums, and pectin), or proteins.
SOME COMMONLY USED PUMPS
• In a positive displacement pump, the fluid is drawn into the pump and is then
forced through the outlet. Types of positive displacement pumps include:
reciprocating piston pumps; gear pumps in which the fluid is enmeshed in rotating
gears and forced through the pump; rotary pumps in which rotating vanes draw in
and discharge fluid through a system of valves. Positive displacement pumps can
develop high-pressure heads but they cannot tolerate throttling or blockages in the
discharge.

• In jet pumps, a high-velocity jet is produced in a Venturi nozzle, converting the

energy of the fluid into velocity energy. This produces a low-pressure area causing
the surrounding fluid to be drawn into the throat as shown diagrammatically in Fig.
(d) and the combined fluids are then discharged. Jet pumps are used for difficult
materials that cannot be satisfactorily handled in a mechanical pump.

• The centrifugal pump converts rotational energy into velocity and pressure energy
and is illustrated in Fig. (g). The fluid to be pumped is taken in at the centre of a
bladed rotor and it then passes out along the spinning rotor, acquiring energy of
rotation. This rotational energy is then converted into velocity and pressure energy
at the periphery of the rotor. Centrifugal fans work on the same principles. These
machines are very extensively used and centrifugal pumps can develop moderate
heads of up to 20 m of water. They can deliver very large quantities of fluids with
high efficiency.
SEPARATION
• Mechanical separations :
• Sedimentation uses gravitational forces to separate particulate material from fluid
streams. The particles are usually solid, but they can be small liquid droplets, and
the fluid can be either a liquid or a gas.
• Sedimentation Equipment for separation of solid particles from liquids by
gravitational sedimentation is designed to provide sufficient time for the
sedimentation to occur and to permit the overflow and the sediment to be removed
without disturbing the separation. Continuous flow through the equipment is
generally desired, so the flow velocities have to be low enough to avoid disturbing
the sediment. Various shaped vessels are used, with a sufficient cross-section to
keep the velocities down and fitted with slow-speed scraper-conveyors and pumps
to remove the settled solids. When vertical cylindrical tanks are used, the scrapers
generally rotate about an axis in the centre of the tank and the overflow may be
over a weir round the periphery of the tank, as shown diagrammatically
• An important application, in the food industry, of sedimentation of solid particles
occurs in spray dryers.
In a spray dryer, the material to be dried is broken up into small droplets of about
100 µm diameter and these fall through heated air, drying as they do so. The
necessary area so that the particles will settle can be calculated in the same way as
for sedimentation. Two disadvantages arise from the slow rates of sedimentation: the
large chamber areas required and the long contact times between particles and the
heated air which may lead to deterioration of heat-sensitive products.

Cyclones are often used for the removal of particles of about 10 µm or more
diameter from air streams.
• They are also used for separating particles from liquids and for separating liquid
droplets from gases.
• The cyclone is a settling chamber in the form of a vertical cylinder, so arranged
that the particle-laden air spirals round the cylinder to create centrifugal forces
which throw the particles to the outside walls.
• Added to the gravitational forces, the centrifugal action provides reasonably rapid
settlement rates. The spiral path, through the cyclone, provides sufficient
separation time. A cyclone is illustrated
Impingement separators
• Other mechanical flow separators for particles in a gas use the principal of
impingement in which deflector plates or rods, normal to the direction of
flow of the stream, abruptly change the direction of flow. The gas recovers its
direction of motion more rapidly than the particles because of its lower
inertia.
• Rotary mechanical classifiers, combining differential settling with centrifugal
action to augment the force of gravity and to channel the size fractions so that
they can be collected, have come into increasing use in flour milling. One result
of this is that because of small differences in sizes, shapes and densities between
starch and protein-rich material after crushing, the flour can be classified into
protein-rich and starch-rich fractions. Rotary mechanical classifiers can be
used for other large particle separation in gases.
• The centrifugal force depends upon the radius and speed of rotation and upon the
mass of the particle.
• If the radius and the speed of rotation are fixed, then the controlling factor is the
weight of the particle so that the heavier the particle the greater is the centrifugal
force acting on it.
• If two liquids, one of which is twice as dense as the other, are placed in a bowl
and the bowl is rotated about a vertical axis at high speed, the centrifugal force
per unit volume will be twice as great for the heavier liquid as for the lighter.
• The heavy liquid will therefore move to occupy the annulus at the periphery of
the bowl and it will displace the lighter liquid towards the centre. This is the
principle of the centrifugal liquid separator, illustrated diagrammatically.
SIZE REDUCTION
• Grinding and cutting reduce the size of solid materials by mechanical
action, dividing them into smaller particles. Perhaps the most extensive
application of grinding in the food industry is in the milling of grains to
make flour, but it is used in many other processes, such as in the grinding
of corn for manufacture of corn starch, the grinding of sugar and the
milling of dried foods, such as vegetables.
• Cutting is used to break down large pieces of food into smaller pieces
suitable for further processing, such as in the preparation of meat for retail
sales and in the preparation of processed meats and processed vegetables.
• Grinding equipment can be divided into two classes - crushers and
grinders. In the first class the major action is compressive, whereas
grinders combine shear and impact with compressive forces.
•
Crushers
• Jaw and gyratory crushers are heavy equipment and are not used
extensively in the food industry. In a jaw crusher, the material is fed in
between two heavy jaws, one fixed and the other reciprocating, so as to
work the material down into a narrower and narrower space, crushing it as
it goes. The gyrator crusher consists of a truncated conical casing, inside
which a crushing head rotates eccentrically. The crushing head is shaped as
an inverted cone and the material being crushed is trapped between the
outer fixed, and the inner gyrating, cones, and it is again forced into a
narrower and narrower space during which time it is crushed. Jaw and
gyratory crusher actions are illustrated
Hammer mills

In a hammer mill, swinging hammerheads are attached to a rotor that rotates at high
speed inside a hardened casing. The principle is illustrated
• Emulsions are stable suspensions of one liquid in another, the
liquids being immiscible. Stability of the emulsion is obtained by
dispersion of very fine droplets of one liquid, called the disperse
phase, through the other liquid, which is called the continuous
phase. The emulsion is stable when it can persist without change, for
long periods of time, without the droplets of the disperse phase
coalescing with each other, or rising or settling. The stability of an
emulsion is controlled by
• interfacial surface forces,
size of the disperse phase droplets,
viscous properties of the continuous phase and
density difference between the two phases.
• very often a third component is added which is absorbed at the
interface and which helps to prevent the droplets from coalescing.
• These added materials are called emulsifying agents and examples
are phosphates and glycerol monostearate.
• Sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (sodium stearoyl lactylate or SSL)
• Lecithin - rapeseed, cottonseed and sunflower
• Examples of emulsions used frequently in the food industry are
- milk (fat dispersed in water), butter (water dispersed in fat),
mayonnaise (oil in water) and ice cream (fat in water which is
then frozen).
• Milk is an emulsion of fat in water, which is not stable
indefinitely as it separates on standing, into skim milk and
cream. This is caused by the density differences between the fat
and the water, the fat globules rising as predicted by Stokes'
Law and coalescing at the surface to form a layer of cream.
After homogenizing, this separation does not occur as the
globules are much reduced in size. Homogenizing is also used
with ice cream mixes, which are dispersions of fat and air in
sugar solutions, and in the manufacture of margarine.
MIXING
 MIXING

Mixing is the dispersing of components, one throughout the other. It occurs in

innumerable instances in the food industry and is probably the most commonly
encountered of all process operations.
• A mixing process begins with the components, grouped together in some
container, but still separate as pure components.
• If table salt is to contain 1% magnesium carbonate, the addition of 10 kg of
magnesium carbonate to 990 kg of salt ensures, overall, that this requirement
has been met.
• However, if the salt is to be sold in 2 kg packets, the practical requirement might
well be that each packet contains 20 g of magnesium carbonate with some
specified tolerance, and adequate mixing would have to be provided to achieve
this.
• Mixing of Widely Different Quantities
• The mixing of particles varying substantially in size or in density presents special
problems, as there will be gravitational forces acting in the mixer which will tend
to segregate the particles into size and density ranges. In such a case, initial mixing
in a mixer may then be followed by a measure of (slow gravitational) un-mixing
and so the time of mixing may be quite critical.
• MIXING
• Mixers classified accordingly as liquids mix, dry powders, or thick pastes.

• Liquid Mixers
• For the deliberate mixing of liquids, the propeller mixer is probably the most common and the most
satisfactory. In using propeller mixers, it is important to avoid regular flow patterns such as an even
swirl round a cylindrical tank, which may accomplish very little mixing. To break up these streamline
patterns, baffles are often fitted, or the propeller may be mounted asymmetrically.

• Powder and Particle Mixers

• The essential feature in these mixers is to displace parts of the mixture with respect to other parts.
The ribbon blender consists of a trough in which rotates a shaft with two open helical screws attached
to it, one screw being right-handed and the other left-handed. As the shaft rotates sections of the
powder move in opposite directions.
• A commonly used blender for powders is the double-cone blender in which two cones are mounted
with their open ends fastened together and they are rotated about an axis through their common base.

• Dough and Paste Mixers

• Dough and pastes are mixed in machines that are heavy and powerful. Because of the large power
requirements.

• The most commonly used mixer for these very heavy materials is the kneader which employs two
contra-rotating arms of special shape, which fold and shear the material across a cusp, or division, in
the bottom of the mixer
Dough and pastes are mixed in machines that are heavy and powerful.
Because of the large power requirements, as the power is dissipated in the form of heat, which
may cause substantial heating of the product. Such machines may require jacketing of the mixer to
remove as much heat as possible with cooling water.

The most commonly used mixer for these very heavy materials is the kneader which employs two
contra-rotating arms of special shape, which fold and shear the material division, in the bottom of
the mixer. The arms are of so-called sigmoid shape as indicated in Fig. Kneader

They rotate at differential speeds, often in the ratio of nearly 3:2.

Another type of machine employed is very heavy contra-rotating paddles,
(a) Helical Ribbon blender (b) Double cone Blender