Study of Hardness Effect of Clear Juice on the Formation of Evaporator Scale and Optimization of Process Parameters A Case of Metahara Sugar Factory

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2019-11

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The study focus on the effect of hardness of clear juice for the formation of evaporator scale and optimization of process parameters. The effect of clear juice hardness of the factory have been evaluated in terms of the response variables which include colour, turbidity, calcium oxide, magnesium oxides, reducing sugars and the purity of clear juice out of the clarifier. The reduction of each evaporator scales was monitored by minimizing the colour, turbidity and calcium oxide content of the clear juice. This study was done on lab scale by varying the effect of pH and settling time of clarified juice on the response variables of colour, turbidity and calcium oxide content of clear juice. The statistical analysis was done by using design expert software (7.0.0, version) of the central composite design (CCD). The statistical experimental design combination was done by inserting the highest and lowest values of the factors of the clarified juice. From this analysis method, both factors had an impact on the response variables directly. Both factors had the same significance effects on colour, turbidity and calcium oxide content of the clear juice were found between “(1855.22 - 2369.37) IU, (1720.36 - 2039.67) NTU and, (2142.96 - 2559.68)” ppm, respectively, and pH of (6.7 - 7.2) and a settling time of (3 - 4.66) hours respectively. While purity, reducing sugars and magnesium oxide content of the clear juice were, investigated during the research work. On the other hand, the parameters, which shows the adequacy of the model such as R 2 , Adjusted-R 2 , predicted-R 2 , CV, Press, mean and standard deviation value of each of the three response variables where in the allowable range. Therefore using the optimum values of pH and settling time gives us the optimum output of colour, turbidity and calcium oxide content of clear juice sample, which can be taken as a positive outcome to bring efficient improvement of heat transfer for energy saving and product maximization.

Description

Keywords

pH, settling time, colour, turbidity, calcium oxide, clear juice

Citation