CHBE 4520/4530

Capstone ChBE (Bio) Design

Spring 2021
Professors Christian Cuba-Torres, Yonathan Thio and F. Joseph Schork

Fryer Steam Recovery and Treatment System for Reuse in Potato Chip Processing
in Cooperation with PepsiCo, Inc.

Phase I

Problem Statement
At PepsiCo, we believe in delivering quality products that delight our consumers while minimizing the impact
to our environment by conserving nature’s precious resources. Water is one such resource that is threatened in
many parts of the world. Maximizing water re-use is not only a strategic priority for PepsiCo but also a business
imperative in high-water-risk-areas.
In the manufacture of our largest global snack brand, Lay’s Potato Chips, we release a large amount of water
into the atmosphere in the form of steam when we fry and dehydrate potato slices to make potato chips. This is
because around 80% of the weight of a potato is water. During the frying process, the moisture content of a
potato chip reduces from 80% to less than 2%, and this moisture is released into the atmosphere as steam. If we
could efficiently capture the steam, condense it and treat it, we could dramatically reduce the “water footprint”
of our potato chip process. Theoretically, all the water we need to run our Potato Chip (PC) line could come
from within the potato, so we could run at net zero water consumption. Today, there are solutions becoming
available to do this. However, the capital cost to implement is very challenging to afford in most markets. Your
challenge is to understand the problem, develop hypothesis and ultimately design a process that meets the
performance requirements in a capital cost-effective way.

Problem Framework
The goal of the project is to recover and treat fryer vapor condensate for reuse within Potato Chip process to
reduce freshwater consumption. We need to deliver potable water suitable for food processing to ensure the
food safety of our consumers. The process is in a food manufacturing facility, so food safety and design
considerations need to be taken into account. The following problems do not have to be solved in sequence, as
separation could be done first to take advantage of the vapor phase, followed by condensation.
 Problem 1: Develop a cost-effective approach to condense steam released from a Potato Chip fryer into
liquid, keeping in mind that the footprint of the unit should be minimal (or be able to bolt onto a stack
or PC line)
 Problem 2: Develop a cost-effective approach to filter/separate contaminants from the condensed liquid
stream to achieve a water standard specified in the table below.
 Stretch: Create a sensitivity analysis looking at the opportunity for process simplification & cost
reduction if different water standards are permitted. This will require an understanding of what
contaminants & levels drive cost and system complexity and where relevant thresholds are.

Current Process Description

A diagram of the current process is given in Figure 1 below. Potato chips are sliced and dropped into hot oil.
Once the potato chips enter in contact with oil, the cooking process starts. Potatoes are fried for three minutes,
and then seasoned and packaged. Makeup oil is added as shown in the figure.
Figure 1. Current Frying Process for Lay’s Potato Chips

Scope
Design a steam recovery and treatment system such that the basis and constraints below are met. Optimize the
operation of all units. Calculate the total capital investment, operational expenditure and potential return on
investment. As a stretch goal, perform a sensitivity analysis to identify opportunities for cost reduction.

Basis
 20,000 lb/hr of incoming potatoes (Composition: 80% water and 20% solids)
 The steam output is >95% water but also contains entrained oil, starch etc.
 Fryer loading as in Figure 1.
 Steam flow rate & delivery geometry will be provided
 Steam composition listed in the table below.

Constraints
 Water quality should meet the standards specified in section below
 Capital cost should not exceed $750K.
 Filtering/separating system capital cost target (or limit) will be provided.
 Due to space constraints, the footprint of additional processing equipment must be minimized. The
maximum footprint is 300 m2, but lower is desirable.
 All process equipment/processes must meet food manufacturing standards.
Useful Data

Fryer vapor composition vs required outlet values after condensation & filtering:

The fryer vapor also contains a proprietary organic compound in the ug/L to low mg/L levels that needs to be
reduced by a factor of up to 200 in the treated water. We will use acrylamide as a model compound to represent
the proprietary compound. The compound is small molecular weight, very hydrophilic and reacts well with
strong oxidizing agents.

Phase I Assignment
Previous PepsiCo efforts at solving this problem are contained in the patent US 10,519,050 B2. The design
described in the patent results in high capital and operating costs. For Phase I:

 Review and summarize the design described in the patent.

o Identify potential technical problems.
o Identify sources of high capital and operating costs

 Create a conceptual design for a process that reduces the excessive capital and operating costs over
those incurred by the process described in the patent. You are not required to retain any part of the
patented process. Teams are encouraged to “think outside the box.”
o Develop a process flow diagram (PFD) for your design. Include all flowrates on your PFD.
o All material balances on your PFD must balance.
o You do not need to do any calculations within the unit operations shown on your PDF. Just
make sure that outputs of each unit operation are reasonable, relative to the inputs (i.e., you do
not create any mass or energy, and you do not violate any laws of physics).
 Phase I Report Format

1) Cover Page

Include the following items: title of report; group number and members; relative contribution of each group
member to the report as a percentage of the total effort, or a statement indicating equal effort; signatures of all
group members agreeing to the relative contribution.

2) Table of Contents

3) Executive Summary (one page maximum)

4) Introduction/Background

5) Discussion

Discuss your assumptions and calculations. Do not exceed more than 5 pages.

6) Conclusions and Recommendations

Identify the major decisions that you have made during the design of the process. Identify the areas where you
think the design requires more study and refinement. Identify the major losses of value and energy
consumption. If you have performed any evaluation of different process options put your conclusions here.
Recommend the next course of action.

7) References

Give appropriate references for the information that you used in the main report. Make sure that any web-based
information is appropriately cited. Do not include complete bibliographic information if only used as
background research. Be sure to cite your references from within the main body of the report.

8) Appendices

Provide any detailed calculations, printouts of any programming code you used should be included here.
 Grading

In Phase I of the report the grading is out of 100 points. There is no set division of these points over the above
sections. Factors that influence the overall grade of a report are:

 Overall Report
o Was the introduction complete and well written?
o Was additional information necessary to support design calculations presented in the
appendices?
o Was an effective executive summary given?
o Was the overall writing quality in the report of high standard?
o Was critical thinking demonstrated in the report?
 Conclusions and Recommendations
o Are conclusions and recommendations made in the report?
o Do the conclusions follow from the analysis presented in the report?
o Do the recommendations follow from the analysis?
o Are the recommendations clear and logically presented?

Report Submission
The report is due 11:59 pm on February 05, 2021. You must submit your report electronically in both Word
document and PDF formats on Canvas Assignment.

Upload your copy to Canvas Assignment.

File name: “Teamxx_PhaseI_Report.docx” (and .pdf)

Example: Team04_PhaseI_Report.docx.

REFERENCES

1. US Patent No. 10,519,050 B2