Modelling the properties of liquid foods for use of process flowsheeting simulators: application to milk concentration

• Published in: Journal of Food Engineering (164), 70-89. (2015)
• Main Authors: MADOUMIER, Martial, Azzaro-Pantel, Catherine, Tanguy-Sai, Gaelle
• Format: Publication
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Alimentation et Nutrition; composant du lait; dispositif expérimental; Food and Nutrition; Food engineering; génie des procedes agroalimentaires; Ingénierie des aliments; lait; modèle de simulation; modélisation; méthode de simulation; process industriel; processus industriel; simulation de process; technologie laitière; évaporation

In this paper, a modelling approach for liquid food products in a chemical process simulator is proposedfrom the flowsheeting methodology widely used for chemical processes. The focus is set on dairy concentrationprocesses, in which milk is defined as a mixture of water and four dry matter components (fat,proteins, carbohydrates, minerals) modelled as ‘‘pseudo-components’’ in a conventional simulator whichhas been adapted to take into account the behaviour of the liquid food product considered. The significantproperties of milk (heat capacity, boiling point elevation, thermal conductivity, density, viscosity, surfacetension) are modelled with empirical models found in the literature and implemented in the simulator. Inorder to validate the approach, an industrial milk evaporation process and a pilot-scale evaporator aremodelled and simulated. The results are compared with industrial and experimental results respectively,and show a good agreement with the industrial process. However improvements are needed in modellingthe pilot scale evaporator. The proposed approach is generic enough to be extended to other liquid foods.