MANUFACTURING OF STARCH FROM POTATOES

Overview of potato:
Potato starch is colorless, high toughness, high viscosity and high stability, and it has unique
characteristics that other starch production cannot match. Potatoes came from the Andes. Because
potato tubers are full of starch, protein, dietary fiber and vitamins, they have high nutritional value.
They are known as “underground apples” and “second bread”.Potato tubers contain high
amounts of starch, but contain less protein and fat, and the starch content is 15 to 25%.
Some of the unique properties of potato starch are not replaceable by other starches, so
they are widely used in the food industry. Here is the introduction about the method of
preparation of potato starch.

Flow sheet:
Process flow for method of preparation of potato starch
STEPS:
Main steps for method of preparation of potato starch are introduced briefly

1-Potato cleaning:
The fresh potatoes stacked on the yard are first sent by forklift to the receiving hopper and then by
conveying machine to the cleaning machine. The main purpose of cleaning in method of
preparation of potato starch is to remove sediment from the outer layer of potato and remove the
epidermis of potato. Cleaning raw material stage is the basis guarantee of starch quality. The
cleaner the starch, the better the starch quality.

o Weighing / conveying:The potato is weighed on the weighbridge and stored in the potato
yard in potato starch processing plant.
o Stone removal / cleaning:The potato after the stone is washed into a squirrel cage cleaner
for how to make starch from potato.
o Separation of impurities:Floating impurities such as leaves, branches, wood and other
debris will be removed through the separation grid.

2-Raw material crushing:

Crushing serves to destroy the structure of the potato cell, so that the tiny starch granules can be
smoothly separated from potato. The requirements for crushing in method of preparation of potato
starch are:

a) As much as possible to break the cells of the material and release more free starch granules
in;
b) Easy to separate. It is not desirable that the skin residue is too fine for potato starch
production. For the fineness of the skin residue is not conducive to the separation of the
starch from other components, and increases the difficulty of separating the fine residue.

Besides, the fineness is required uniform so as to ensure quality of final potato starch. Rasper
crushing is the ideal crushing used in method of preparation of potato starch whose crushing degree
is controllable and can be adjusted according to the nature of the material.

3-Screening process:
Starch extraction, also known as pulp separation, is a key link in method of preparation of potato
starch, directly affecting starch extraction rate and starch quality in potato starch processing plant.
The crushed material is fine fiber whose volume is larger than the starch granule, and the expansion
coefficient is also larger than the starch granule, while the specific gravity is lighter than the starch
granule. The crushed material is separated from the starch by using water as a medium. Doing
Company uses screening and washing in a multi-stage cycle in method of preparation of potato
starch. Fully panning to free the starch from the fiber; pressureless percolation allows the slurry
water to pass through the mesh hole and the fine residue remains on the net; squeezed to further
filter out the starch slurry water contained in the fiber, which can be used with less power and
quick process completes the extraction of starch.

4-Dehydration:
The starch after screening enters refining hydrocyclone to remove separate insoluble protein and
residual soluble protein and other impurities, then goes through desander for sand removal. From
here it comes to dehydration stage in method of preparation of potato starch. Dehydration of wet
starch is a very important.

5-Drying:
Drying is done below 40°C to prevent the swelling and gelatinzing.For the water content will
directly determine the efficiency and effect of subsequent drying equipment, so the water content
must be controlled below 38-40% after dehydration. And the drying step follows dehydration
operation to further reduce water content in starch so as to meet the commercial standard for
method of preparation of potato starch. The principle of drying is that the wet starch is suspended
in the high speed hot air flow, and the starch is dried in the flow process.

1) Centrifugational Drying: Starch is first dried in a centrifugal machine and water contents
over here are 35%.
2) Hot air drying:Starch is then dried with hit air under 30°C.Water contents over here are
11-20%.

6-Packing and Marketing:

Starch is then packed in different packing and supplied to market.
 Manufacturing of Starch from wheat

Introduction:
Wheat is one of the most grown, consumed and tradedfood grains of the world with a worldwide
diversity ofthousands of cultivars/varieties. It constitutes a majorportion of diet of the world
because of its agronomicadaptability, ease of storage, nutritional goodness andthe ability of its
flour to prepare a variety of palatableand satisfying foods.Triticum aestivum (referred as bread
wheat) is themost commonly grown species of wheat, accounting for 90–95% of total percentage.

Structure:

Wheat Starch:
Wheat starch is a polysaccharide composed of glucose units, extracted from the endosperm of
wheat grains.

STEPS:
1-Cleaning and Conditioning:
Purpose: To remove impurities (dust, stones, chaff) and prepare the wheat for milling.

Process: Wheat is passed through sieves and air classifiers to remove foreign materials.Moisture
content is adjusted to soften the grain (around 16–18% moisture level).

2-Steeping (Soaking):
Purpose: To soften the wheat and loosen starch from proteins.

Process: Wheat is soaked in warm water (35–40°C) for 24-48 hours.Lactic acid may be added to
maintain pH (around 4–5) and prevent microbial growth.

3-Milling (Grinding):
Purpose: To break the wheat grains and release the starch granules.

Process: Wet wheat is ground using roller mills or disc mills.Fine grinding ensures the separation
of starch and gluten.

4-Starch-Gluten Separation:
Purpose: To separate starch from gluten and other impurities.

Process: The slurry is passed through centrifuges to separate the heavier starch from lighter
gluten.The starch settles at the bottom while gluten floats and is removed.

Conditions:Centrifuge speed: 3000–4000 rpm

Temperature: Maintain at 30–35°C for optimal separation.

5-Washing and Purification:

Purpose: To remove residual proteins, fibers, and impurities from starch.
Process: The starch slurry is washed multiple times with clean water.Fine sieves and
hydrocyclones are used to ensure purity.

6-Dewatering and Drying:

Purpose: To remove excess moisture and obtain dry starch powder.

Process: Starch is dewatered using vacuum filters.It is dried in air dryers at 40–50°C to achieve a
moisture content of 12–14%.

7-Sieving and Packaging:

Purpose: To ensure uniform particle size and safe storage.
Process: The dried starch is passed through sieves for uniform particle size.Packaged in moisture-
proof bags for storage and distribution.

By-products of Wheat Starch Manufacturing

❖ Gluten: Used in animal feed or as a protein supplement.
❖ Bran: Utilized for livestock feed or biofuel production.
❖ Solubles: May be used as fermentation substrates.

PROCESSES for commercial production of Starch:

The main processes for commercial production ofwheat starch are Martin or dough-washing, batter
and Alfa-Laval or Raisio

1-Martin or dough-washing process:

The Martin or dough-washing process was originally developed in 1745 by Beccari and further
proposed in Paris in 1835 by Martin.The basic steps involvedin this process are mixing of flour
and water to form a stiff dough, washing of the dough to separate gluten and starch, refining of
starch and drying of the refined starch and gluten.Wheat flour and water are mixed in a ratio of
about 2:1 to form smooth, uniform and stiff dough. The flour from hard wheat requires more water
to form dough than that from soft wheat. The dough is allowed to stand for approximately 30 min
to ensure complete hydration and strengthening of gluten network. This is followed by washing of
dough using ribbon blenders, rotating drums, twin-screw troughs or agitated vessels to obtain
gluten strands and starch suspension.Starch suspension with approximately 10% solids is passed
through a vibratory screen followed by a fine screen to recover gluten particles and fibres,
respectively. Starch is then refined and dewatered using centrifuges and flash-dried to a moisture
content of 8–11%. Approximately 75–85% of the starch present in flour is recovered as the prime
starch (A-starch), while 5–10% is obtained as the second grade (B-starch) consisting of small gran-
ules, proteins and damaged granules.

2-Batter process:
The batter process was developed independently in 1944 by Shewfelt and Adams in Canada and
Hilbertand coworkers in USA.This process involves mixing of flour with sufficient amount of
warm water (50–55 °C) to form a smooth flowable batter at 40–45 °C.The amount of water
required depends on the type of wheat and its protein, fibre and damaged starch content.The batter
is allowed to rest for about 30 min and stirred vigorously with additional water to cause aggregation
of gluten proteins.Gluten is washed and separated from starch by screening. Starch slurry is passed
through a series of fine screens to remove fibres and centrifuges to obtain purified starch.
3-Alfa-Laval or Raisio process:
The Alfa-Laval or Raisio process was founded in 1969 by Fellers and colleagues and
commercialized in 1976 in Raisio,Finland.This process involves mixing of flour with sufficient
quantity of water to form a flowable batter followed by shear mixing with additional water to form
a homogeneous dispersion (30% solids) and centrifugation.The centrifugation is performe dusing
a two-stage decanter centrifuge to separate the dispersion into starch and protein-rich fractions.The
starch fraction is resuspended in water and refined (using a rotating conical fine screen) to get
purified prime starch, while the protein-rich fraction is further processed to get second-grade starch
and VWG. Prime starch recovery is 75–80% with less than 0.3% protein content, while second-
grade starchvrecovery ranges from 10% to 15% with 2–5% proteins.