FE-248

Unit Operations in Food Processing-II

Credits: 3 (2+1)

B.Tech Food Technology

Semester- IV

Compiled & Edited by

Dr. Manmath D. Sontakke
Assistant Professor

MGM COLLEGE OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY,

AURANGABAD
 Evaporation
Evaporation is an unit operation used to remove a liquid from a solution,
suspension, or emulsion by boiling off some of the liquid. It is thus a thermal separation,
or thermal concentration, process. We define the evaporation process as one that starts
with a liquid product and ends up with a more concentrated, but still liquid and still
pumpable concentrate as the main product from the process. There are actually a few
instances where the evaporated, volatile component is the main product, but we will not
discuss that here.
Evaporation is used to pre-concentrate foods (for example fruit juice, milk and
coffee) prior to drying, freezing or sterilization and hence to reduce their weight and
volume. This saves energy in subsequent operations and reduces storage, transport and
distribution costs. Frequently in the food industry a raw material or a processed food
contains more water than is required in the final product. When the foodstuff is a liquid,
the easiest method of removing the water, in general, is to apply heat to evaporate it.
In most cases it is essential that the product be subject to minimal thermal
degradation during the evaporation process, requiring that temperature and time exposure
must be minimized. This and other requirements brought on by the physical
characteristics of the processed product have resulted in the development of a large range
of different evaporator types. Additional demands for energy efficiency and minimized
environmental impact have driven development toward very innovative plant
configurations and equipment design.
In the field of thermal separation / concentration technology, evaporation plants
are widely used for concentration of liquids in the form of solutions, suspensions, and
emulsions. The major requirement in the field of evaporation technology is to maintain
the quality of the liquid during evaporation and to avoid damage to the product. This may
require the liquid to be exposed to the lowest possible boiling temperature for the shortest
period of time. This and numerous other requirements and limitations have resulted in a
wide variation of designs available today. In almost all evaporators the heating medium is
steam, which heats a product on the other side of a heat transfer surface. The following
list contains the descriptions of the most common types of evaporators.
Definition/ Meaning
• Evaporation, or concentration by boiling, is the partial removal of water from liquid
foods by boiling off water vapour.
• A practical definition of evaporation is “The removal of liquid from a solution by
boiling the solution in a suitable vessel and withdrawing the vapour, leaving a
concentrated liquid residue.”
• “Evaporation is a unit operation that consists of the elimination of water of a fluid
food by means of vaporization or boiling”. Several foods are obtained as aqueous
solutions and, in order to facilitate their preservation and transport, they are
concentrated during a water elimination stage. This elimination can be performed in
different ways, although evaporation is one of the most used methods. The equipment
used to remove this water from the food product is called an evaporator.
• Evaporation means simply vaporization from the surface of a liquid. Vaporization of a
liquid below its boiling point is called evaporation.”
• Thus, no boiling occurs and the rate of vaporization depends on the diffusion of
vapour through the boundary layers above the liquid.
Purpose of Evaporation:
• Concentrate liquid foods
• Energy savings in subsequent operations (eg. spray drying)
• Reduces weight (and volume) – Energy savings in storage and transportation
• Reduces water activity (preservation)
• Changes flavor and/or color (caramelized syrups in baking)
• Products: Salt, sugar, milk, juices, tomato paste, hard candies, purees

Invention of evaporator:
• Norbert Rillieux is famous for his invention of the
multiple effect pan evaporator for sugar refining process
in 1881.
• Rillieux was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1806. He
used the steam generated from one pan to heat the sugar
juice in the next pan for energy efficient means of water
evaporation.

Principles of Evaporation
• Evaporation and vaporization occurs where molecules obtain energy to escape as
vapour from a solution
• The rate of escape of the molecules depends primarily upon the
 Temperature of the liquid
 The temperature of the surroundings
 The pressure above the liquid, surface and
 Rate of heat propagation to product
• In a closed container with air space above the liquid, evaporation will continue until
the air is saturated with water molecules
• Removal of water from a liquid product by evaporation is enhanced by adding heat
and by removing the saturated air from the liquid
• This is done by removal of vapour from the space above the liquid surface and there
by creating vacuum.
Principle of Evaporation

 The driving force for heat transfer is the

difference in temperature between the steam
in the coils and the product in the pan.
 The steam is produced in large boilers,
generally tube and chest heat exchangers. The
steam temperature is a function of the steam
pressure.
 Water boils at 100° C at 1 atm., but at other
pressures the boiling point changes.
 At its boiling point, the steam condenses in
the coils and gives up its latent heat.
 If the steam temperature is too high, burn-
on/fouling increases so there are limits to how
high steam temperatures can go.
 The product is also at its boiling point. The
boiling point can be elevated with an increase
in solute concentration. This boiling point
elevation works on the same principles as freezing point depression.
Thermodynamics of Evaporation
1. Boiling Point Elevation
• Boiling-point elevation describes the
phenomenon that the boiling point of a
liquid (a solvent) will be higher when
another compound is added, meaning
that a solution has a higher boiling
point than a pure solvent.
• This happens whenever a non-volatile
solute, such as a salt, is added to a pure
solvent, such as water.
• As evaporation proceeds, the liquor
remaining in the evaporator becomes
more concentrated and its boiling point
will rise.
• The extent of the boiling-point elevation
depends upon the nature of the material
being evaporated and upon the concentration changes that are produced.
• The extent of the rise can be predicted by Raoult's Law, which leads to:
DT = kx
Where, DT is the boiling point elevation,
x is the mole fraction of the solute and
k is a constant of proportionality
2. Phase Change
A phase change is when matter changes to from one state (solid, liquid, gas,
plasma) to another. These changes occur when sufficient energy is supplied to the
system (or a sufficient amount is lost),
and also occur when the pressure on the
system is changed.
The temperatures and pressures under
which these changes happen differ
depending on the chemical and physical
properties of the system. The energy
associated with these transitions is
called latent heat.
 Duhring's rule
• Duhring's rule states that the ratio of the temperatures at which two solutions
(one of which can be pure water) exert the same vapour pressure is constant.
• The Duhring's rule is a scientific rule developed by Eugen Dühring which states
that a linear relationship exists between the temperatures at which two solutions
exert the same vapour pressure.
• The rule is often used to compare a pure liquid and a solution at a
given concentration.
• Duhring's plot is a graphical representation of such a relationship, typically with
the pure liquid's boiling point along the x-axis and the mixture's boiling point
along the y-axis; each line of the graph represents a constant concentration

• Thus, if we take the vapour pressure/temperature relation of a reference liquid,

usually water and if we know two points on the vapour pressure-temperature curve
of the solution that is being evaporated, the boiling points of the solution to be
evaporated at various pressures can be read off from the diagram called a Duhring
plot. The Duhring plot will give the boiling point of solutions of various
concentrations by interpolation and at various pressures by proceeding along a line
of constant composition.
Factors affecting rate of evaporation
There are seven factors to affect evaporation are as follows:
1. Temperature
2. Surface area
3. Agitation
4. Atmospheric aqueous vapour pressure
5. Atmospheric pressure on the liquid under evaporation
6. Type of product required
7. Economic factors
1. Temperature: The rate of evaporation is directly proportional to the temperature.
2. Surface area: The rate of evaporation is directly proportional to the surface area of
the vessel exposed to evaporation.
3. Agitation: is necessary for evaporation.
4. Atmospheric aqueous vapour pressure: The rate of evaporation is inversely
proportional to the atmospheric aqueous vapour pressure
5. Atmospheric pressure on the liquid under evaporation: The rate of evaporation is
inversely proportional to the atmospheric pressure on the liquid under evaporation.
6. Type of product required: The selection of the method and apparatus to be used
for evaporation depends upon type of product required.
7. Economic factors: When selecting the method and apparatus the economic factors
are important.
 Evaporation Equipments
An Evaporators consists of:
• A heat exchanger (termed a calandria) which transfers heat from steam to the food
• A means of separating the vapours produced
• a mechanical or steam ejector vacuum pump. Mechanical pumps have lower operating
costs but higher capital costs than steam ejector pumps.
Separation in an evaporator is achieved by exploiting the difference in volatility between
water and solutes. Ideally it should selectively remove water without changing the solute
composition, so that the original product is obtained on dilution.
This is approached in some equipment but, the closer to the ideal that is achieved, the
higher the cost. As with other unit operations the selection of a particular method is
therefore a compromise between the cost of production and the quality required in the
product.
The selection of an evaporator should include the following considerations
• operating capacity (as kilograms of water removed per hour) degree of concentration
required (as percentage of dry solids in the product) heat sensitivity of the product in
relation to the residence time and temperature of evaporation
• the requirement for facilities to recover volatiles
• ease of cleaning
• reliability and simplicity of operation
• size of the evaporator in relation to its capacity
• Capital and operating costs in relation to capacity and product quality.

1. Natural Circulation Evaporator

Natural circulation in an evaporator is caused by the thermal difference between the
heating medium and the liquid. This thermal change is called "thermo-siphon action".
Sufficient heat must be available to provide the necessary thermal difference to cause
circulation.
A Natural Circulation Evaporator has components similar to that of a forced
circulation evaporator except the circulation pump. In this case, the flow is natural due to
density difference or thermosyphon. The tubes within the calandria are very short, about
one to two metres in height.
The liquid in the calandria is heated, which decreases the density of the liquid. This
pushes the liquid with reduced density to rise above and flow into the separator at the top
and travel down through the central down-comer. The volume is reduced to desired level
as per the concentration required.
Working principle
• Operating a Natural Circulation / Rising Film Evaporators is extremely simple. The
body and tubes are partially filled with liquid and steam is admitted to the steam-
chest. Dilute liquid at the proper temperature is fed to the chamber below the lower
tube sheet.
• When the boiling point is reached, bubbles of vapor are formed in the column of
liquid. As they expand and increase in volume they push the liquid ahead with
increasing velocity. As the upper part of the tubes is reached, the liquid is either in the
form of drops or a film in contact with the wall of the tubes.
• The mixture of vapor and liquid merges from the tubes and enters the upper chamber
from which it passes through a short connection into the vapor separator.
Concentrated liquid is removed from the bottom of the vapor separator as a finished
product or to serve as feed for another effect.
Construction
• It consists of short vertical tubes; typically 1-2m
long and 50-100mm in diameter are arranged inside
the steam chest.
• It is located in the bottom of the vessel.
• The product when heated rises through these tubes
by natural circulation while steam condenses outside
the tubes
• Evaporation takes place inside the tubes and the
product is concentrated.
• The concentrated liquid falls back to the base of the
vessel through a annular section

Types of Natural Circulation evaporator:

In natural-circulation evaporators, circulation of the liquor is achieved by convection
currents arising from the heating surface. This group of evaporators may be subdivided
according to whether the tubes are horizontal with the steam inside, or vertical with the
steam outside
A) Tubes are horizontal with steam inside
B) Tubes are vertical with steam outside

A) Horizontal tube evaporator:

A solution to be evaporated boils outside the
tubes and steam condenses inside of tubes.
These tubes interfere with natural circulation
and minimize liquid agitation Overall heat
transfer coefficients are lower
Construction:
• The horizontal tubes extend between two
tube plates to which they are fastened
either by packing plates or, more usually,
by expansion.
• Above the heating section is Cylindrical section above heating portion is used to
separate vapor from liquid
• vapor leaves through de-entraining device to prevent carry over of liquid droplets with
vapor
• Steam enters through one side chest and leaves through opposite chest
• Steam condensate out via steam trap
Advantages
• Horizontal evaporators are relatively cheap, require low head room, are easy to
install, and are suitable for handling liquors that do not crystallize.
• They can be used either as batch or as continuous units, and the shell is generally
1–3.5 m diameter and 2.5–4 m high.
• The liquor circulation is poor, and for this reason such units are unsuitable for
viscous liquors
Disadvantages
1. Not suitable for viscous liquids

B) Vertical tube evaporator: (Tubes are vertical with steam outside)

A typical form of vertical evaporator in which a vertical cylindrical body is used,
with the tubes held between two horizontal tube plates which extend right across the
body. The lower portion of the evaporator is frequently spoken of as the calandria
section.

Tubes are 1–2 m in length and 37–75 mm diameter, giving ratio of length to inside
diameter of the tubes of 20–40.
In the basket type vertical tubes are used with the steam outside, though the heating
element is suspended in the body so as to give an annular down take.
Advantages
The advantages claimed for this design are that the heating unit is easily removed for
repairs, and that crystals formed in the down comer do not break up.
As the circulation of the liquor in the tubes is better, the vertical tube evaporator is used
widely in the sugar and salt industries where throughputs are very large.
Short-Tube Vertical Evaporators
• Short-tube vertical evaporators are the oldest but still widely used in sugar industry in
evaporation of cane-sugar juice. These are also known as calandria or Robert
evaporators. This evaporator was first built by Robert. It became so common in
process industry that this evaporator is sometimes known as standard evaporator.
Construction and Working:
• Short-tube vertical evaporators consist of a
short tube bundle (about 4 to 10 ft in length)
enclosed in a cylindrical shell. This is called
calandria. A evaporator of this type is shown in
Figure.
• The feed is introduced above the upper tube
sheet and steam is introduced to the shell or
steam chest of the calandria.
• The solution is heated and partly vaporized in
the tubes. The central tube in a calandria is of
longer diameter.
• Typically it’s downcomer area is taken as 40 to
70% of the total cross sectional area of tubes.
The circulation rate through the
downcomer/downtake is many times the feed
rate.
• The flow area of the downtake is normally
approximately equal to the total tubular flow area

Long-Tube Vertical Evaporators

• This is another most widely employed natural circulation evaporator because it is
often the cheapest per unit of capacity.
• The long vertical tube bundle is fixed with a shell that extends into a larger diameter
vapor chamber at the top (Figure). The long-tube
vertical (LTV) evaporator consists of one pass shell
and tube heat exchanger.
• In this type of evaporator, the liquid flows as a thin
film on the walls of long (from 12 to 30 feet in
length) and vertical heated tube. Both rising film and
falling types are used. Tube length usually varies
from 20 to 65 ft.
• The main advantage of this type of evaporators is
higher heat transfer rate. The feed enters at the
bottom and the liquid starts boiling at lower part of
the tube.
• The LTV evaporators are commonly used in
concentrating black liquors in the paper and pulp
industries
Fig. Long tube vertical evaporator
Forced Circulation Evaporator
• Forced circulation evaporators are used if boiling
of the product on the heating surfaces is to be
avoided due to the fouling characteristics of the
product, or to avoid crystallization. The flow
velocity in the tubes must be high, and high-
capacity pumps are required. The circulating liquid
is heated when it flows through the heat exchanger
and then partially evaporated when the pressure is
reduced in the separator, cooling the liquid to the
boiling temperature corresponding to this pressure.

• The liquid is typically heated only a few degrees for each pass through the heat
exchanger, which means the recirculation flow rate has to be high. This type of
evaporator is also used in crystallizing applications because no evaporation, and
therefore no concentration increase, takes place on the heat transfer surface.
• Evaporation occurs as the liquid is flash evaporated in the separator/flash vessel. In
crystallizer applications this is then where the crystals form, and special separator
designs are used to separate crystals from the recirculated crystal slurry. The heat
exchanger (in evaporator parlance sometimes called the "calandria") can be arranged
either horizontally or vertically depending on the specific requirements in each case.
• Forced circulation evaporators are usually more costly than natural circulation
evaporators. However the natural circulation evaporators are not suitable under some
situations such as: -
 highly viscous solutions due to low heat transfer coefficient
 solution containing suspended particles
 for heat sensitive materials
 All these problems may be overcome when the liquid is circulated at high
velocity through the heat exchanger tubes to enhance the heat transfer rate and
inhibit particle deposition.
 Any evaporator that uses pump to ensure higher circulation velocity is called a
forced circulation evaporator.
Calandria type Evaporator:
Commonly it is known as short tube or single effect evaporator
• Features:-
 Vertical type of evaporator.
 Tubes sheets extending across the body and central down take.
 Material which has to be evaporated is introduced in tubes.
 The tube may be about 1.2m long and 5 cm in diameter, but the size varies with
the nature of the substances.
 There is space below containing a steam coil to give extra heating capacity and
large enough to afford circulation of liquid.

Advantages
• High heat transfer rates at high temperature difference leads to quick process
• Ease of cleaning
• Relatively inexpensive
Disadvantages
• Large floor space and weight
• Poor heat transfer at low temperature differences.
• Not use for thermo-labile products
Long tube evaporators (Climbing film evaporators)
Construction
• The heating unit consists of steam-jacketed tubes, having a length to diameter ratio of
about 140 to 1, so that a large evaporator may have tubes 50 mm in diameter and
about 7 m in length.
• The liquor to be evaporated is introduced into the bottom of the tube, a film of liquid
forms on the walls and rises up the tubes, hence it is called climbing film evaporator.

Working
• At the upper end, the mixture of vapor and
concentrated liquor enters a separator, the
vapor passes to a condenser, and the
concentrated liquid to a receiver.
• Cold or pre heated liquor is introduced into the
tube.
• Heat is transferred to the liquor from the walls
and boiling begins.
• Ultimately sufficient vapor has been formed
for the smaller bubbles to unite to a large
bubble, filling the width of the tube and
trapping a ‘slug’ of liquid above the bubble.
• As more vapor is formed, the slug of liquid is blown up the tube, the tube is filled with
vapor, while the liquid continues to vaporize rapidly, the vapor escaping up the tube
and, because of friction between the vapor and liquid, the film also is dragged up the
tube upto a distance of 5 to 6 meters.

Falling Film Evaporator

• The liquor to be evaporated is introduced at the top of the evaporator tubes and the
liquor comes down due to gravity.
• The concentrate and vapor leaves the bottom.
They are separated in a chamber where the
concentrate is taken out through product outlet
and vapor from vapor outlet.
Working
• In falling film evaporators the liquid product
usually enters the evaporator at the head of the
evaporator.
• In the head, the product is evenly distributed
into the heating tubes.
• A thin film enters the heating tube are it flows
downwards at boiling temperature and is
partially evaporated.
• In most cases steam is used for heating the
evaporator.
• The product and the vapor both flow downwards in a parallel flow. This gravity-
induced downward movement is increasingly augmented by the co-current vapor
flow.
• The separation of the concentrated product form its vapor is undergoing in the lower
part of the heat exchanger and the separator.
• Falling film evaporators can be operated with very low temperature differences
between the heating media and the boiling liquid, and they also have very short
product contact times, typically just a few seconds per pass.
• These characteristics make the falling film evaporator particularly suitable for heat-
sensitive products, and it is today the most frequently used type of evaporator.

Advantages:
• Because of obtaining good heat transfer the method being especially useful with
liquids that are too viscous to be processed in units in which the film is formed
naturally.
Disadvantages:
• A major disadvantage of falling film evaporators is the potential instability of the
falling film. Expense to manufacture and install the instrument is high.
• Difficult to clean and maintain
 Mass and Energy balance
Material and energy balances are very important in the food industry. Material balances
are fundamental to the control of processing, particularly in the control of yields of the
products. The first material balances are determined in the exploratory stages of a new
process, improved during pilot plant experiments when the process is being planned and
tested, checked out when the plant is commissioned and then refined and maintained as a
control instrument as production continues. When any changes occur in the process, the
material balances need to be determined again.
The increasing cost of energy has caused the food industry to examine means of reducing
energy consumption in processing. Energy balances are used in the examination of the
various stages of a process, over the whole process and even extending over the total food
production system from the farm to the consumer’s plate.

Mass balances
The law of conversion of mass states that ‘the mass of material entering a process equals
the mass of material leaving’. This has applications in, for example, mixing, Fermentation
and evaporation.
In general a mass balance for a process takes the following form:

Mass of raw materials in = mass of products and wastes out + mass of stored materials +losses
a) Overall Mass Balance
If the streams have mass flow rates m1, m2, m3 and m4, respectively,
then, because the sum of the mass flow rates of all streams entering
the process must equal the sum of the flow rates of all streams leaving
the process

Above is an example of an overall material balance. The SI unit of mass flow

rate is kg s-1 but it may often be convenient to use different units depending on
the magnitude of flow rates in a particular process.

b) Concentration and Composition mass balance

• The concentration or composition of a stream can be expressed
in a number of ways.
 • A mass fraction is simply the mass of a given component
expressed as a fraction of the total mass of the mixture
containing that component.
• Thus if a mixture consists of masses mA and mB of components
A and B, respectively, the mass fraction of A is given by

c) Component material balance

• Suppose that each of the four streams in contains water. Clearly,
at steady state, the combined mass flow rate of water in all
streams entering the process must equal the combined mass flow
rates of water leaving the process.
• Now if x is the mass fraction of water in a stream of total mass
flow rate m, then the mass flow rate of water is xm. Hence,

• Equation is known as a component material balance. Any

material balance problem, other than the most trivial, will
require the simultaneous solution of an overall balance and at
least one component balance equation
Problems:
1. Example: Constituent balance
• Skim milk is prepared by the removal of some of the fat from whole milk. This
skim milk is found to contain 90.5% water, 3.5% protein, 5.1% carbohydrate,
0.1% fat and 0.8% ash. If the original milk contained 4.5% fat, calculate its
composition assuming that fat only was removed to make the skim milk and that
there are no losses in processing.
Solution:
Basis: 100 kg of skim milk.
This contains, therefore, 0.1 kg of fat. Let the fat which was removed from it to make
skim milk be x kg.
Total original fat =(x + 0.1)kg
Total original mass = (100 + x) kg
and as it is known that the original fat content was 4.5% so
(x + 0.1) / (100 + x) = 0.045
where = x + 0.1 = 0.045(100 + x)
x = 4.6 kg
So the composition of the whole milk is then fat = 4.5%, water = 90.5/104.6 = 86.5 %,
protein = 3.5/104.6 = 3.3 %, carbohydrate= 5.1/104.6 = 4.9% and ash = 0.8%
2. Example: Balance across equipment in continuous centrifuging of milk
If 35,000kg of whole milk containing 4% fat is to be separated in a 6 hour period into
skim milk with 0.45% fat and cream with 45% fat, what are the flow rates of the two
output streams from a continuous centrifuge which accomplishes this separation?
Solution:
Basis 1 hour's flow of whole milk
Mass in
Total mass = 35000/6 = 5833 kg.
Fat = 5833 x 0.04 = 233 kg.
And so Water plus solids-not-fat = 5600 kg.
Mass out
Let the mass of cream be x kg then its total fat content is 0.45x. The mass of skim milk is
(5833 - x) and its total fat content is 0.0045 (5833 – x)
Material balance on fat:
Fat in = Fat out
5833 x 0.04 = 0.0045(5833 - x) + 0.45x. and so x = 465 kg.
So, that the flow of cream is 465 kg / hr and skim milk (5833 – 465) = 5368 kg/hr

3. Problem
Potatoes are dried from 14% total solids to 93% total solids. What is the product yield
from each 1000 kg of raw potatoes assuming that 8% by weight of the original potatoes is
lost in peeling.
Basis 1000kg potato entering. As 8% of potatoes are lost in peeling, potatoes to drying
are 920 kg, solids 129 kg

Solution:
Mass in (kg) = Mass out (kg)

 Potato solids 140 kg

 Water 860 kg
 Dried product 92
 Potato solids 140 x (92/100) =129 kg
 Associated water 10 kg
 Total product 139 kg
 Losses
 Peelings-potato
o Solids 11 kg
o Water 69 kg
 Water evaporated 781 kg
 Total losses 861 kg
 Total 1000 kg
 Product yield = 139/1000 = 14%
Problem
Determine the respective masses of 10 and 50% (by weight) aqueous sucrose solution
which must be mixed to prepare 100 kg of a 22% sucrose solution. Let the masses of 10
and 50% solution be A and B, respectively.
Solution:
The overall material balance is then
A + B = 100
where each term has units of kilogram. The component material balance (for sucrose) is
0.10 A + 0.50 B = 0.22 × 100
Note that mass fractions are used rather than the percentages given in the question.
Substituting for B from the overall balance now gives
0.10 A + 0.50 (100 - A) = 22.0
which can be solved to give
A = 70 kg
and therefore
B = 30 kg
Problem:
Tomato juice containing 7% solids by mass is fed to an evaporator and water is removed
at a rate of 500 kg h-1. If the concentrate is to contain 35% solids, determine the
necessary feed rate. Let F and L be the feed rate and product rate (kg h-1), respectively.
Solution:
The overall material balance can be written as
F = 500 + L
In other words, the total mass in the feed stream must appear either as concentrated
product or as evaporated water. Now, because the water vapour removed from the
evaporator cannot contain solids, the component balance for solids becomes
0.07 F = 0 + 0.35 L
On substitution from the overall balance this becomes
0.07 F = 0 + 0.35 (F - 500)
from which
F = 625 kg h-1

Problem:
Skim milk, with a fat content of 0.4% by mass, is produced by centrifuging whole milk
(containing 3.5% fat). The cream layer, which separates from the skim milk in the
centrifuge, contains 50% fat. What will be the proportion of skim milk to cream? As a
basis for the calculation, let the feed rate of whole milk be 1.0 kg s-1 and the mass flow
rates of skim milk and cream S and C kg s-1 and the component material balance (for fat)
is Substitution now yields which is solved to give and, respectively.
Solution:
The overall material balance therefore becomes
1.0 = S + C
0.035 × 1.0 = 0.004S + 0.50C
0.035 = 0.004S + 0.50 (1.0 - S)
S = 0.9375 kg s-1
C = 0.0625 kg s-1
Thus the proportion of skim milk is 93.75% of the feed and cream 6.25%; alternatively
the ratio of skim milk to cream is 15:1.
Problem:
2000 kg of milk (with 87.6% water, 3.8% fat, 3.2% protein, 4.6% lactose, and 0.7% ash
content) has to be reduced in fat content from 3.8% to 2.5% by removal of cream with
40% fat content from the milk. How much milk will have to be removed?
Solution.
Total Material Balance: 2000 = C + M

Fat Material Balance: 2000*0.038 = 0.4*C + 0.025*M

2000*0.025 = 0.025*C + 0.025*M

Solving the equations will give the values of C = 69.3 kg and the remaining milk M

=1930.7 kg.

Problem:

If 3000 kg of the same milk used in the previous example is separated into cream with
45% fat and skimmed milk with 0.05% fat, how much cream and skimmed milk are
expected assuming no losses?
Solution

TMB: 3000 = C + M

FMB: 3000*0.038 = 0.45*C + 0.0.0005*S

Solving the equations will give C = 250.3 kg and S = 2749.7 kg