Abstract

MENDIETA MENJURA, Oscar Andrés  and  ESCALANTE HERNANDEZ, Humberto. Experimental analysis of the evaporation of sugar cane juice by film on a flat plate. Corpoica cienc. tecnol. agropecu. [online]. 2013, vol.14, n.2, pp.113-127. ISSN 0122-8706.

In the production of "panela" (a block of unrefined whole cane sugar also known as piloncillo, raspadura, chancaca, jaggery) in Colombia, pans that have been traditionally used for evaporation of sugarcane juice have low energy efficiency problems. In the present study, a flat plate film evaporator was evaluated at a pilot scale. The temperature of the juice and the plate was measured with thermocouples, and the concentration of the soluble solids of the juice was measured with a refractometer. Evaporator performance was determined through the heat transfer coefficient on the side of liquid (h), which was related to the following operating parameters: mass flow, surface temperature, and the temperature and concentration of the fed liquid. The coefficient h profited by increasing: surface temperature (from 140.8 to 181.2 °C), feed concentration (from 18 to 30 °Brix), and juice feed flow (from 5.7 to 38.4 kg/h), and by decreasing feed temperature (from 90 to 60 °C). In the evaporation of sugarcane juice in a flat plate evaporator, h values between 140 and 380 W/m²K were found, which show a marked improvement for evaporation process of sugarcane juice.

Keywords : fuel economy; film evaporation; jaggery; heat transfer.

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