EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS OFPEACH OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION IN MOLASSES

Abstract

Energy consumption reduction per unit of product’
removed moisture is necessary to lower production costs and
increase the overall efficiency of the dehydration process. The
goal of this research was to analyse efficiency and economics of
the peach in molasses osmotic dehydration process, by
investigating mass transfer parameters. Time, concentration and
temperature of the osmotic dehydration of peach in molasses
were varied and responses of water loss and solid gain were
measured. The results showed that with the technological
parameters of time, concentration and temperature increase,
individual mass transfer parameters also increased, where
maximal values of 0.7524 g/gi.s. and 0.1069 g/gi.s., were obtained
for water loss and solid gain, respectively. On the basis of
experimental data, mathematical models of peach osmotic dehydration in molasses responses dependence from applied
technological parameters were developed, which showed good
correlations between experimental and calculated results.
Combined technological efficiency parameter analysis showed a
total efficiency increase in the range of 40.67 to 51.71%, by
using process temperature of 20°C. The highest process
economics was obtained by application of energy undemanding
process temperature of 20°C, where energy costs were avoided
while at the same time achieved highest value of technology
efficiency.