MXPA99009884A - Essence recovery system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of recovering essence from a mash. The method includes providing a mash which includes essence, treating the mash in an essence recovery system (230) to produce a vapor stream (T) and a mash stream (U), wherein the vapor stream (T) includes the essence, and condensing the vapor stream in condenser (232) which includes the essence under conditions effective to recover the essence in separator (238).

Description

SYSTEM TO RECOVER ESSENCE FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a method and apparatus for recovering essence of a pulpy mass.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Figure 1 shows a schematic of a typical fruit juice processing line. Processing conditions may vary slightly, depending on the type of fruit product. Typically the process includes providing an entire fruit A to a chopper 110. The whole fruit A is ground in the chopper 110 to produce a pulpy mass B. The pulpy mass B is heated in a heat exchange treatment device 112 to produce the warm pulpy mass C. Optionally, enzyme is added to the warm pulpy mass C to break the fruit cells. Next, the pulpy mass C is pressed in a press 114, to produce a juice D. As shown in Figure 1, in Option 1, the Juice D is depectinized in a depectinization tank 115 to produce a depectinized juice E. The depectinized juice E can be filtered, if desired, in the filter 116 to produce a filtered juice F. The filtered juice F is concentrated, typically in a evaporator 118, for REF .: 31433 produce a juice. The water vapor H from the evaporator 120 is sent to an essence recovery system 122 to produce an essence stream I and a condensate stream J. 5 Alternatively, as shown in the Option 2, Juice D undergoes a fractionation step in a fractionation evaporator 124 to produce a juice stream K and a vapor stream M. The vapor stream M is treated in an essence recovery system 126 for produce an essence stream N and a condensate stream O. The juice stream K is then depectinized in depectinization tanks 128, to produce a depectinized juice Q, which is filtered, if desired, in a filter 130, to produce a filtered juice R. The The filtered juice R is then concentrated, for example, by evaporation in the evaporator 132 to produce a concentrated juice S. The streams of concentrated juice S or G are then sent for further processing below. The streams of essence I and N are added back to the streams of concentrated juice G and S to return the flavor to the juice. Fruit juices owe their aroma and many of them taste organic compounds generally known as essences. Consequently, essence is a component extremely valuable juice; without it the juice lacked its characteristic flavor and aroma. Generally, essences are highly volatile compounds, such as (depending on the type of juice) alcohols, including methyl alcohol, esters, carbonyls, and aldehydes. In this way, during the processing operation to produce fruit juice, the essence easily escapes into the atmosphere, reducing the quality of the juice. In addition, the essence is subjected to oxidation, thermal degradation and chemical decomposition during prolonged storage. In this way, it is desirable to recover the essence of the fruit as soon as possible in the process. In addition, when the fruit juice is concentrated by removing the water vapor in an evaporator, many of the volatile components, which include the essences, are removed with the water vapor. Unless the essences can be recovered and become available to be mixed again in the concentrated juice in the correct proportion, when the juice is reconstituted it will lack the characteristic flavor of the original; as a result, the product will be inferior and sometimes even unacceptable. Various types of essence recovery systems have been used to recover this essence and are described in US Patent No. 4,561,941 to Dinnage et al. Typically, essence recovery systems are of two types. ? rillMM¡úgife? a? aHßw ^^^^^ B ^^ M || gaA ^^ g | & ^ A type of essence recovery system (as shown in Option 1) is used in conjunction with an evaporator of the concentration type. During the concentration of juice, the volatile components which are mixed with the water vapor during evaporation are recovered by condensing the water vapor and distilling the resulting rich-essence condensate to produce the essence. As shown in Figure 1, the juice undergoes a complete processing before the recovery of the essence in this type of arrangement. Alternatively, the essence recovery system is used after the pressing operation (as shown in Option 2). In this system, the juice is fed through a "fractionation" evaporator which is designed to only "fractionate" the water vapor that contains the essence of the juice, with a minimum concentration of the juice. Typically, about 15 to 50% of the water in the juice being fed is evaporated, depending on the type of juice, which is sufficient to remove most of the juice's essence. The evaporated water vapor is then condensed and distilled to recover the essence. In this type of design, much of the energy used in the fractionation evaporator is lost, making this design relatively inefficient in terms of energy.

In addition, in both types of these essence recovery systems, the essence is subjected to a significant heat treatment and retention time at elevated temperatures before recovery. In this way, the essence degrades. In addition, the essence, being a volatile component, will necessarily escape into the atmosphere during processing in open tanks, such as during depectinization. As a result, an essence of lower quality than desirable is obtained. Finally, because these types of essence recovery systems are located after the pressing operation, they recover the components of the essence of the juice only, without recovering the valuable essences contained in the other components of the fruit, such as the skin. . The present invention is directed to overcome those deficiencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for recovering essence of a pulpy mass. The method includes providing a pulpy mass which includes the essence, treating the pulpy mass to produce a vapor stream and a pulpy mass stream, where the vapor stream includes the essence, and condensing the vapor stream which ^ n ^^ includes the essence under effective conditions to recover the essence. Another aspect of the invention relates to the essence recovery system for recovering the essence of a pulpy mass which includes the essence. The system includes means for treating the pulpy mass to produce a vapor stream and a pulpy mass stream, where the vapor stream includes the essence and a condenser to condense the vapor stream under effective conditions to recover the essence. The present invention allows the recovery of high quality essence from a pulpy mass, because the essence has not undergone the numerous typical processing steps in other methods. In this way, the essence has not been subjected to extensive thermal treatments and long residence times, which degrade the quality of the essence. Additionally, the present invention allows the essence to be recovered from whole fruit, including peel. In addition, the present invention can be used by manufacturers who do not wish to concentrate their product. In addition, once the essence is removed from the product, the downstream processing temperatures are less critical, allowing greater flexibility in the design of the equipment.

^ H ^ aaaHta ijH ^ DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates a scheme of two typical fruit juice processing lines. Figure 2 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for recovering essence of a pulpy mass. The method includes providing a pulpy mass which includes the essence, treating the pulpy mass to produce a vapor stream and a pulpy mass stream, where the vapor stream includes the essence, and condensing the vapor stream which includes the essence under effective conditions to recover the essence. Another aspect of the invention relates to the essence recovery system for recovering the essence of a pulpy mass which includes the essence. The system includes means for treating the pulpy mass to produce a vapor stream and a pulpy mass stream, where the vapor stream includes the essence and a condenser to condense the vapor stream under effective conditions to recover the essence.

^ UU ^ jHllHMMHMHßlMIMIllil ^ ilMMaaílllil As used herein, the term "pulpy mass" is related to a product which includes the essence, where the product has been ground to roughly cut the product into pieces. Although the pulpy mass may be generally solid at room temperature, when heating, the pulpy mass typically consists of a mixture of a solid phase and a liquid phase, where the liquid phase can be evaporated. Although the present invention was described using a fruit juice processing line as an example, it should be understood that the present invention can be used to recover the essence of any product containing essences. For example, the present invention can be used to recover the essences of vegetables, such as carrots, beets, onions and tomatoes, as well as fruits such as apples, pears, oranges, strawberries, grapes, peaches, plums and currants to name a few. . In the method of the present invention, a pulpy mass B is provided which includes the essence. Preferably, the pulpy mass B is produced by grinding, for example, a fruit. In addition, desirably, the pulpy mass B has been heated. Importantly, the pulpy mass B has not undergone a processing to produce a juice. Subsequently, the pulpy mass B is treated to ... -... m? * + a > . ^^ produce a vapor current T and a mass of pulpy mass U, where the vapor current T includes the essence. The steam stream T is then condensed under effective conditions to recover the essence. The pulpy mass B can be treated under any conditions effective to produce the vapor stream T and the pulp mass stream I. For example, the pulpy mass B can be subjected to a heat treatment, so that a portion of the liquid component of the pulpy mass B is evaporated from the pulpy mass B to produce the vapor stream T and the pulpy mass stream U. An embodiment of the present invention is described in Figure 2. Preferably, the treatment step is achieved by subjecting the pulpy mass B to flash evaporation to produce the vapor stream T and the pulpy mass stream U. Desirably, flash evaporation occurs by providing pulpy mass B to the container 230 to a temperature of about 40 ° to about 100 ° C, being about 85 ° to 100 ° C especially preferred. The container 230 is under vacuum conditions, with a vacuum of approximately 20"Hg (508 mm Hg) to approximately 28" Hg (635 mm Hg) being preferred. Vacuum conditions in vessel 230 are produced by vacuum pump 236, which also operates to direct the steam stream T to * Lt through the later phases of the process. The pulpy mass B, when subjected to the vacuum conditions in the vessel 230, will rapidly reach a temperature of about 37 ° C to about 71 ° C, thereby releasing a corresponding volume of water vapor. Because the essence is highly volatile, during instantaneous evaporation, the vast majority of the essence will be contained in the vapor stream T. Typically, the. T vapor stream condenses to recover the essence. Preferably, the condensation includes cooling the vapor stream T to produce a cold condensate stream Y having a temperature of about .5 ° C to about 10 ° C to recover the essence. More preferably, the essence is condensed in two steps to recover the essence. In particular, the vapor stream T is cooled in a first cooling step to produce the mixing stream X having a temperature from about 32 ° C to about 34 ° C, where the mixing stream X includes a mixture of condensate and steam. This step typically takes place in a first capacitor 232, such as a shell-type condenser and tubes or a plate type condenser. The cooling water (AE), or any other desirable cooling liquid, is provided to the condenser 232 to condense and cool the ^^^? m? Mm * n steam. Next, the mixing stream X is further cooled to a temperature of about 0.5 ° C to about 10 ° C in a second condenser 234 to cool and further condense the mixing stream X to produce cold Y condensate. Typically a liquid of Cooling (LE), such as cooled glycol, is used in the second capacitor 234. Additionally, research has shown that a significant amount of the essence is contained in a portion of the vapor stream that is more difficult to condense, i.e. "not condensable". In this way, the cold condensed stream Y may still include a portion of steam. Accordingly, it is desirable to include a scrubber system for recovering the essence contained in the portion of non-condensable (ie vapor) cold condensate Y. The scrubber system includes a liquid ring vacuum pump 236 having a vapor separator 238 in its discharge, two heat exchangers 240 and 242, a reflux pump 244, and a flow regulator 246. The steam rich in essence and the condensate contained in the condensate cooled and is drawn to the suction side of the vacuum pump 236 of the condenser 234, where it is compressed from a vacuum pressure to atmospheric pressure. Alternatively, if desired, the condensed portion of the condensate cooled Y can be returned to the vessel 230a for rikaAt-itilíißi its further processing (as discussed below) and only the vapor component of the condensate cooled Y is drawn to the vacuum pump 36. Typically, the condensed portion of the condensate cooled Y is mixed with the reflux current EE before of the regulation of the flow 246. In any case, the pressure rises on the cold condensate And in the vacuum pump 236, a greater portion of the components of the essence contained in the portion of non-condensable in the condensed cold Y are condensed . Accordingly, the discharge stream Z of the vacuum pump 236 contains a liquid portion consisting of condensed vapor which includes components of the essence and a vapor portion, which also contains essence. The discharge stream Z is sent to the steam separator 238. In the steam separator 238, the discharge stream Z is separated into these two distinct portions; a liquid portion AA and a portion of steam CC. The steam separator 238 contains two working sections; an upper section and a lower section. The lower section is an open container that separates the liquid portion AA and the portion of the vapor CC contained in the discharge stream Z. The liquid portion AA falls to the bottom of the container, where it is recirculated from the bottom of the container through a heat exchanger. heat 240, again to the suction side of the vacuum pump 236. The cooling liquid (LE), such as the cooled glycol or other cooling medium, is used in the heat exchanger 240 to cool the recirculated liquid AA of. 5 to 10 ° C. The steam portion CC flows upward to enter the upper part of the separator 238. The upper part of the separator 238 is a "purifying" section, which contains a packing, or some other type of pulpy mass transfer device, which causes the steam portion CC to come into contact with a cold stream of drinking water BB. The drinking water stream BB is cooled from .5 to 2.5 ° C in a heat exchanger 242 before entering the purification section of the separator 238. This stream of cold drinking water BB cleans (by absorption) almost all the components of the water. the remaining essence of the steam portion CC before being discharged from the system through, for example, an orifice. In this way, the drinking water BB, which now contains the essence, falls into the lower section of the separator 238. The liquid level rises in the lower section of the separator 238 due to the steam contained in the cold condensate Y which is being compressed and condensed and by the flow of drinking water BB to the lower section of the separator 238. This excess of liquid is then transferred from the lower section of the separator 238 using a level control device of embroidery or overflow. This overflow of the liquid FF then passes to the inlet of the pump 244. The discharge of the pump 244 is divided into two streams: essence product DD and reflux current EE. The DD essence product is extracted at the desired flow rate through a flow regulator or flow meter device 246 at a rate to produce the maximum quality of the essence. Preferably, the DD essence product is removed at a rate which would be equal to about 150 to about 300 times that of the essence. The number of times the speed increases is a comparison of the amount of pulpy mass B fed to the container 230 with the amount of the DD product produced. Thus, 300 times would be equal to one pound (0.454 Kg) of essence for every 300 pounds (136.2 Kg) of pulpy mass. Preferably, the reflux flow EE is returned to the upper part of the container 230. Typically, the reflux flow EE is returned to the container 230 in the rectification section 230R of the container 230 (as described below). Preferably, to increase the concentration of the essence contained in the DD essence product, the vapor stream T is rectified, ? 7, - - - ---- ^^^ «Jfc ^ MMMM ** - ^ - '^ ¡? »^, ^^ _ ^ _ using distillation. Distillation allows the rectification or concentration of the most volatile component of a current. As shown in Figure 2, by means of a series of trays (placed horizontally or at an angle), packing or other devices for transfer of pulpy mass and reflux or flow of reflux EE back to the rectification section 230R of container 230 , a high concentration of essence can be obtained in the DD essence product. By instantaneously evaporating the pulpy mass B in the container 230, the pulpy mass stream U falls to the bottom of the container 230, where it is removed from the container 230. The pulpy mass stream U is then sent for further processing. Alternatively, the pulpy mass stream U is maintained in the container 230 to increase the residence time. Preferably, this is achieved by including trays or other pulpy mass transfer devices in the container 230. Although it does not mean that we are bound by the theory, it is believed that by increasing the residence time of the pulpy mass stream U the container 230 , any residual essence contained in the mass of pulpy mass U will migrate from the center of each of the particles of the mass of pulpy mass U and will move upwards with the vapor current U, thus giving an essence recovery It is desirable to maintain the pulpy mass stream U in the container 230 for approximately a few seconds to approximately 5 minutes, depending on the type of product, with less than one minute. In addition, the container 230 can be used as a "fractionation" column A fractionation gas V is provided to the fractionation section 230S of the container 230. A pulpy mass B falls through the trays in the 230S fractionation section of the vessel 230, the essence is "fractionated" from the pulpy mass B by the fractionation gas V and flows upward with the upward flow of the fractionation gas V. The fractionation gas V is preferably steam, but may be any useful fractionation gas, such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide The fractionation gas V, which is now rich in essence, is attached to the steam stream T for processing (as described it was previously copied) to recover the essence. As shown in Figure 2, the instantaneous evaporation of the pulpy mass B in the vapor stream T and the pulp mass stream U and the distillation of the vapor stream T can occur in a single container, such as the container 230 Alternatively, as shown in Figure 3, flash evaporation and distillation may occur in separate 230B and 230C containers. For example, pulpy B i is supplied to a fractionator vessel 230B. The pulpy mass B is evaporated instantaneously in the fractionating vessel 230B to produce a vapor current T and a pulpy mass stream U, where the vapor stream T includes the essence. Preferably, flash evaporation occurs by providing the pulpy mass B to a fractionating vessel 230B at a temperature of about 40 ° to about 100 ° C, being 85 ° to 100 ° C especially preferred. The fractionator vessel 230B is under vacuum conditions, with a vacuum of about 20"Hg (508 mm Hg) to about 28" Hg (771 mm Hg) being preferred. Accordingly, the pulpy mass B, when subjected to the vacuum conditions in the fractionating vessel 230B, will evaporate at a temperature of about 37 ° to about 71 ° C, thereby releasing a water vapor of corresponding volume. Because the essence is highly volatile, the vast majority of the essence will be contained in the vapor stream T. The pulpy mass stream U is removed from the fractionating vessel 230B and sent for further processing. As discussed aboveIt is desirable to include means in the fractionator vessel 230B to increase the residence time of the flow of pulpy mass U fractionator vessel 230B to allow migrate additional essentially the center of each particle stream pulpy mass 230B, thus giving an improved essence recovery. Additionally, the fractionator vessel 230B can be used as a fractionation column, as discussed above for the container 230 providing fractionating gas V. The vapor stream T is provided to a separate vessel for distillation as the distillation column 230C. Preferably, the distillation column 230C is a rectification column, where the essence of the vapor stream T is concentrated using steam as a heating medium. As described above, through a series of trays, packing or other transfer devices and reflux pulpy mass of the substance back to the top of the distillation column, you can be obtained a high concentration of essence. The vapor stream T is condensed as described above and as shown in Figure 2 to produce a high quality DD essence product. Thus, the above description describes a method and apparatus for recovering a high quality essence of the pulpy mass stream. The particular type ^ i ^ u ^ ü m. As equipment, such as, for example, the types and sizes of containers, pipes and pumps, available processing equipment known to those skilled in the art was used in the present invention. By using the present invention, an improved quality essence can be obtained. The present invention allows the recovery of essences before the fruit has undergone a heat treatment and significant residence times. Consequently, the essence has a limited opportunity to degrade. In addition, because the essence recovery system of the present invention is located before the pressing step, the entire essence of the fruit product can be recovered. In this way, you get an essence that has a high quality. In addition, the present invention produces a high quality essence which contains higher concentrations of higher alcohols, esters, carbonyls, aldehydes, etc., than the essences recovered using the above methods to recover essence. Although the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, it should be understood that such details are solely for those purposes, and that variations may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The invention is defined by the following claims. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (23)

CLAIMS Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property:

1. A method for recovering essence of a pulpy mass, characterized in that it comprises: providing a pulpy mass comprising essence; treat the pulpy mass to produce a vapor stream and a pulpy mass stream, where the vapor stream comprises the essence; and condensing the vapor stream under effective conditions to recover the essence.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the treatment comprises evaporating instantaneously the pulpy mass.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises: distilling the vapor stream before condensation.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the distillation comprises: - ^^^? ^ m? faith? .- concentrate the essence in the steam current using rectification.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the treatment further comprises: fractionating the essence of the pulpy mass stream.

The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the condensation comprises: cooling the vapor stream to a temperature of about .5 ° to about 10 ° C.

The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the condensation comprises: cooling the vapor stream to a temperature of about 32 ° to about 34 ° C in a first cooling step and cooling the vapor to a temperature of about. 5 ° to approximately 10 ° C in a second cooling step.

The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the vapor stream comprises a portion of non-condensable comprising essence and the condensation further comprises: treating the vapor stream so that the non-condensable comprising essence are absorbed and condensed to recover the essence. , ^ bá ^ É-i ---- í-a

9. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the instantaneous evaporation and distillation occur in the same container.

10. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the flash evaporation and the distillation occur in different containers.

11. The method according to the claim 9, characterized in that the pulpy mass stream passes through pulpy mass transfer devices to increase the residence time of the pulpy mass stream in the container.

The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the pulpy mass transfer devices are trays.

13. The method according to the claim 10, characterized in that the pulpy mass current passes through the pulpy mass transfer devices to increase the residence time of the pulpy mass stream in the container.

14. The method according to the claim 13, characterized in that the pulpy mass transfer devices are trays.

15. A system for recovering essence to recover essence of a pulpy mass comprising essence, characterized in that it comprises: G ^^^^ HÜiiiÜi ^ - «---- ^« NhM means to treat the pulpy mass comprising the essence to produce a vapor current and a pulpy mass stream, where the vapor current comprises the essence; and A condenser to condense the vapor stream under effective conditions to recover the essence.

16. The essence recovery system according to claim 15, characterized in that the treatment means comprise an instantaneous evaporation vessel.

17. The essence recovery system according to claim 16, characterized in that further: means for distilling the vapor stream.

18. The essence recovery system according to claim 17, characterized in that the means for the distillation comprise: A rectification column.

19. The essence recovery system according to claim 18, characterized in that it comprises: A debugger system.

20. The essence recovery system according to claim 18, characterized in that the The instant evaporation container and the rectification column are located in a single container

21. The essence recovery system according to claim 20, characterized in that the container comprises pulpy mass transfer devices. to increase the residence time of the pulpy mass stream in the container

22. The essence recovery system according to claim 21, characterized in that the pulpy mass transfer devices are trays. essence according to claim 16, characterized in that the evaporation vessel further comprises fractionation means. É ^ a ^^ aiai