Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Changes in physical and thermo-physical properties of sugarcane,

palmyra-palm and date-palm juices at different concentration of sugar
P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao a, Madhusweta Das b, S.K. Das b,*
a
b

Department of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural College, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Naira 532 185, Andhra Pradesh, India
Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, West Bengal, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 26 March 2008
Received in revised form 13 July 2008
Accepted 24 July 2008
Available online 5 August 2008
Keywords:
Jaggery
Sugarcane
Palmyra-palm
Date-palm
Palm juice

a b s t r a c t
The process of making jaggery from three natural juices by boiling could be divided into three zones: rise
in temperature to boiling (Zone I), slow rise in both boiling temperature and total soluble solids (TSS)
(Zone II) followed by rapid rise in boiling temperature with concomitant increase in viscosity and TSS
(Zone III). The juice samples in Zone III exhibited changes in boiling temperature, viscosity and TSS from
105 to 121 C, 4.5 to 988 mPa s and 54.6 to 81.9 (% w/w) for sugarcane (Saccharum ofcinarum); from 104
to120 C, 41.6 to 559 mPa s and 46 to 81 (% w/w) for palmyra-palm (Borassus abellifer L.); and from 103
to 121 C, 22.9 to 417 mPa s and 51 to 81 (% w/w) for date-palm (Phoenix sylvestris L.). Colour change

DE
was rapid in Zone III. Difference in colour among these jaggery samples might be attributed
D % w=w
to amount of reducing sugars present initially and respective changes in properties during juice
concentration.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Jaggery, a sugar rich food product is produced all over the world
under different names, such as Gur (India), Desi (Pakistan), Panela
(Mexico and South America), Jaggery (Burma and African countries), Hakuru (Sri Lanka), Htanyet (Myanmar), Panocha (Philippines), Rapadura (Brazil), and Naam Taan Oi (Thailand) (Thakur,
1999). It is consumed directly or used for preparation of sweet confectionery items and ayurvedic/traditional medicines (Pattnayak
and Misra, 2004), and it may have a role to reduce the chance of
lung cancer (Sahu and Paul, 1998). Jaggery is prepared traditionally
by concentrating sugarcane juice (Saccharum ofcinarum) in open
atmosphere boiling. In addition, sap collected from palm trees such
as palmyra-palm (Borassus abellifer L.), coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.), wild date-palm (Phoenix sylvestris L.) and sago palm (Caryota urens L.) are also used for preparation of jaggery (Pattnayak
and Misra, 2004). The sap or juice collected from these trees contains around 1012% total sugars; mainly comprised of sucrose,
less amount of reducing sugars, and other minerals and vitamins
(Dalibard,1999). All these jaggery products have their own characteristic taste and aroma and their production is seasonal. India produces about 6 million tonnes of jaggery annually, which accounts
70% of the total production in the world; 6570% of the total jaggery is from sugarcane, the remaining 30% is from palms (Kamble,
2003).
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 3222 283112; fax: +91 3222 282244/255303.
E-mail address: skd@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in (S.K. Das).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2008.07.024

The production of solid forms of jaggery involves: collection of

juice by crushing canes or tapping the sap from palm trees; its ltration and concentration by boiling, cooling of concentrated juice
followed by moulding, drying and storage (Fig. 1). The quality of
the prepared jaggery, such as aroma, texture, colour and taste, is
largely dependent on monitoring and controlling of various physical and chemical changes occurring during concentration, particularly when the process approaches the end point (high total soluble
solid concentration). In absence of scientic data, this stage becomes critical, and is mostly tackled by the skill of the processor.
Variations in density, viscosity and boiling point rise for pure
sucrose solution has been reported to be a function of concentration (Junk and Pancoast, 1973). Buera et al. (1987) have reported
kinetics of colour changes due to caramelization of various single
sugars with heating time. Physical and thermo-physical properties
of the different juices have been found to exhibit a close relationship with temperature and water content (Ali et al., 2002). Singh
(1992) and Sweat (1974) have reviewed thermo-physical properties of different vegetables, fruits and its juices. Several workers
(Constenla et al., 1989; Telis-Romero et al., 1998; Patricia et al.,
2005; Zuritz et al., 2005; Shamsudin et al., 2005) have reported
mathematical models correlating thermo-physical properties of
fruit juices, soluble solids content and temperature. According to
Telis-Romero et al. (1998), in Brazilian orange juice, total soluble
solids exhibited a signicant role on its density, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specic heat compared to temperature
when concentration and temperature were varied. However,
no information on physical and thermo-physical properties of

560

P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

Nomenclature
a*
a
b*
C
Cp
Ecb
DE
k
L*
q

CIE colour values

parameter for Chirife and Buera (1997) model
CIE colour values
concentration (% w/w)
specic heat (kJ kg1 K1)
parameter for Chirife and Buera (1997) model
colour difference between two samples
thermal conductivity (W m1 K1)
CIE colour values
heat produced per unit length per unit time (W m1)

sugarcane, palmyra-palm and date-palm juice is available in the

literature.
The present study discusses the variations in some physical
(boiling point, density, viscosity and colour) and thermo-physical
(thermal conductivity and specic heat) properties of sugarcane,
palmyra-palm and date-palm juices with changes in soluble solid
(increase in total soluble solids). Furthermore, correlations among
these changes with solid concentration in the syrup were
explained.
2. Materials and methods
This study comprises of two parts: preparation of jaggery type
from their respective juices was monitored at the site (while the
evaporation process was in progress) with periodical measure-

Juice Extraction by
Crushing or Tapping
Juice
Filtration

r
T0 and T
t0 and t
Tb
TSS
X

a
c
q
gr

radial distance (m) from the probe, correlation coefcient

temperatures at initial and nal time, respectively (K)
initial and nal time (s)
boiling temperature (C)
total soluble solids (% w/w)
mole fraction
thermal diffusivity (m2 s1)
Eulers constant
density (kg m3)
relative viscosity

ments of temperature of the juice and total soluble solids (TSS).

Other properties, i.e., density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, specic heat and colour of the juice or syrup, collected at different stages of boiling, were measured at room
temperature.
2.1. Preparation of sugarcane jaggery
Fifteen hundred (1500) litres of juice was extracted from
1.25 tonnes of sugarcane (variety Co 85 A 298) in Harapalem village (8310 E, 17400 N), Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The initial total soluble solid concentration of the juice was
17.2 (% w/w) (average). After ltration with a ne muslin cloth,
concentration of sugarcane juice was carried out by open atmosphere boiling in a large circular pan made of iron. Lime water
(60 ml/100 kg juice) was added at the initial stage of boiling and
also intermittently for clarication of juice. It was for clarication
of juice. Boiling of juice continued in a regulated manner for more
than 3 h till the concentrated syrup attained a total soluble solids
concentration around 82 (% w/w) while the temperature rose
slightly beyond 120 C. The end point concentration level was
decided manually by dropping a small aliquot of hot syrup into
cold water taken in a container where it solidied. The concentrated juice was then transferred to moulds and allowed to cool
gradually till it solidied.

Undesirable solid particles

2.2. Preparation of palmyra-palm jaggery

Partially clarified juice

Boiling in a shallow tank/ pan in
open atmosphere with/ without
clarificant and removal of scum
periodically
Hot thick sugarcane
syrup
Air cooling
&
Moulding
in various shape moulds

Final concentration or
End point is examined by
a skilled person

About fty ve (55) litres of juice (sap) was collected from several palmyra-palm trees at Kharar village (87190 E, 22250 N), East
Midnapur District, West Bengal, India with initial total soluble solid content of 16 (% w/w). It was rst ltered through a ne muslin
cloth and boiling was carried out in an open shallow aluminum
pan. A mild bleaching agent at the rate of 5 g/50 l juice was added
intermittently during boiling for clarication of juice. Boiling of
juice continued in a regulated manner for more than 2 h till the
syrup attained total soluble solids around 81 (% w/w). At that time,
temperature rose to about 120 C.
2.3. Preparation of date-palm jaggery

Solid jaggery
in different shapes

Storage
Fig.1. Process ow chart for solid jaggery preparation.

About sixty (60) litres of juice was collected from different datepalm trees at Kharar village, East Midnapur District, West Bengal,
India with initial total soluble solid content of 12.9 (% w/w). Boiling
of juice for jaggery preparation was almost similar to that of palmyra-palm. However, no claricant was added during boiling of
juice. Boiling of juice continued more than 2 h till the syrup attained total soluble solids concentration of 81 (% w/w), with corresponding end point temperature around 120 C.

P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

Table 1
Composition of fresh sugarcane, palmyra-palm and date-palm juice (g/100 ml)

Parameters

Sugarcane juice

Palmyra-palm juice

Date-palm juice

pH
Total sugar
Reduced sugar
Protein
Minerals as ash
Calcium
Phosphorous
Potassium
Iron
Vitamin C

5.5
14
0.6
0.55
0.91
0.25
Trace
0.50
0.16
0.0046

6.8
10.93
0.96
0.35
0.54
Trace
0.14
Trace
0.4
0.013

6.0
11.50
0.85
0.40
0.46
Trace
0.11
Trace
0.35
0.0092

All the three juice samples were analyzed (AOAC, 1998) for total
sugars, reducing sugars and other minerals present. Table 1 provides the composition of the three juice samples.
2.5. Measurement of temperature and TSS of juice during
concentration
For each of the processes, temperature of the boiling juice was
measured periodically at an interval of 5 min using thermocouples
(copper- constantan) coupled to a digital temperature indicator
(50 to 200 C) with resolution of 0.1 C. Measurement of temperatures of the boiling juice was taken at three locations in the boiling pan and their average value was taken. Samples were collected
at regular interval to determine the TSS (% w/w) using three portable refractometers (Models 032, 2862 and 5892 Brix, Erma
Optical Works Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) having resolution 0.1 Brix (%
w/w) for each.
2.6. Measurement of physical and thermo-physical properties of the
collected juice samples
2.6.1. Density
Density of sugarcane, palmyra-palm and date-palm juice and
syrup at different total soluble solids were determined at 25 C,
by weighing the juice contained in a 25 ml pycnometer (Constenla
et al., 1989). For all these measurements, three replicates per sample were made and their respective average was taken.
2.6.2. Viscosity
A Brookeld Viscometer (Model DV-1, Brookeld Engineering
Laboratories, MA, USA) was used to determine the viscosity of
the collected juice samples at 25 C using UL adopter as well as
specic spindles.
2.6.3. Colour
Colour change was initially judged by visual examination of
juice collected in clear test tubes at different interval of time. In
addition to this, a high-resolution digital camera (Model G1, Canon
Digital Lab, Singapore, Malaysia) was used to measure colour by
capturing the colour image of the juice sample as per the method
described in the literature (Len et al., 2006). The colour images
were then analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using Adobe
Photoshop (Yam and Papadakis, 2004).
The lightness, a, and b in the Histogram Window (Adobe Photoshop) are not standard colour values. However, they were converted to CIE L*, a*, b* values using the following equations (Yam
and Papadakis, 2004):

Lightness
 100
255
240a
a
120
255

1
2

The colour difference between two samples was estimated (Siddiqui and Nazzal, 2007) using the following equation:

DE

2.4. Composition of different juice samples

L

240b
 120
255

561

q

DL2 Da 2 Db 2

2.6.4. Thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specic heat

2.6.4.1. Theory of thermal properties measurement by line source
heating. Thermal conductivity and diffusivity of juice samples
were determined using the line heat source theory of transient
heat transfer analysis. The detailed theory of the thermal conductivity probe or line heat source technique has been described in literature (Fontana et al., 2001). In brief, a line heat source probe was
inserted into the juice sample (initially at a uniform temperature)
and then heated at a constant rate. Temperature adjacent to the
line source was monitored. A plot of logarithm of time versus temperature was linear, and its slope used to calculate the thermal
conductivity of the sample. The nal equation for the thermal conductivity may be written as

T  T0


 2 
r
lnt  c  ln
4p k
4a
q

where q is heat produced per unit length per unit time (W m1); k is
thermal conductivity of the medium (W m1 K1); a is thermal diffusivity (m2 s1); t is time (s); c is Eulers constant; and r is radial
distance (m) from the probe.
The diffusivity was obtained from the intersection of the
regression line (Eq. (5)) with the t-axis (DT = 0). Thus analy tically


lnt0

c ln


r2
;
4a

T  T 0 DT 0

Taking the value of t0 [from the intercept of DT versus ln(t)] and nite r, the diffusivity was calculated.
2.6.4.2. Measurement system. The line heat source thermal property
analyzer (Model KD2, Decagon Devices Inc., WA, USA) consisted of
a 0.9 mm diameter, 60 mm length stainless steel needle, with a line
heat source element and a temperature sensor. A micro-controller
regulated the power to the heating element and measured the
probe temperature. The thermal conductivity and diffusivity of
the test sample were computed from its own in-built software
on the basis of the theory described above. The least count of this
instrument was 0.02 W m1 K1 for thermal conductivity and that
for diffusivity it was 0.1  106 m2 s1 with the corresponding
accuracy of 5% and 10%. The instrument was initially calibrated
against distilled water and castor oil as per the procedure described by the manufacturer. Both values were compared with
the corresponding reported data. The instrument took about
2 min to attain a stabilized value. Each of these measurements
was replicated thrice and average values were taken.
The specic heat (Cp) of the juice sample was estimated from
the measured values of thermal conductivity (k), diffusivity (a)
and density (q) of the same sample (Sweat, 1986) using the following equation:

Cp

qa

2.6.5. Statistical analysis

Effect of TSS on various properties of the juice during concentration was analyzed (ANOVA) following the method of single factor
experiment with completely randomized design (Gomez and Go-

P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

90
80

120

70
100

40
30

40

20
20

10
Zone-I

0
0

Fig. 2ac shows the timetemperature prole and corresponding change of total soluble solids (TSS) for three juice samples.
All these temperature proles and change in solids concentration
were noted to contain three distinct zones. The temperature of
the juice varied more rapidly in Zone I till it attained the boiling
temperature followed by elevation of boiling point very slowly
(Zone II) arising from corresponding increase in TSS in the juice.
Rapid increase in solids concentration and boiling temperature occurred in Zone III. This fast increase in TSS in this zone is due to rapid evaporation of juice at elevated temperature (higher boiling
point) with lesser volume and depth of juice in the boiling pan.
For making quality jaggery from these juice samples, controls of
parameters corresponding to Zone III are most critical. Nevertheless, many other changes also occurred in the latter part of Zone
II. Table 2 gives a range of values of boiling temperatures and
TSS for Zones II and III.
3.2. Change in boiling temperature with the change in TSS
Fig. 3 shows boiling point rise (DTb) of different juice samples at
different concentration TSS (comprising of Zones II and III). All the
juice samples showed a sharp increase in boiling point after attaining a particular zone of concentration of sugar; exactly similar to
the trend reported for pure sucrose solution (Junk and Pancoast,
1973) as shown in Fig. 3. However, it may be noted that at any corresponding concentration value (x-axis), all these juice samples
had higher boiling point rise than that of pure sucrose solution.
This might be possibly due to presence of other low molecular
weight soluble substances in the juice samples (Table 1) that gives
higher boiling point rise (Junk and Pancoast, 1973). With the progress of evaporation, the concentration of reducing sugars increases which accounts further rise in boiling point of the juice
samples in comparison to that of pure sucrose solution. The boiling
point rise versus TSS for all these juice samples showed exponential trends

DT SGJ 0:2209e0:0557C

r 0:969

0:0558C

r 0:971

10

DT DPJ 0:4754e0:0469C

r 0:965

11

DT PPJ 0:3433e

At any particular TSS beyond 40 (% w/w), the boiling points

followed the order: DTb-palmyra-palm juice > DTb-date-palm juice >
DTb-sugarcane juice corresponding to the order of reducing sugars
present in these samples (Table 1).

Zone-II

20

40

Zone-III

0
60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

140

90

120

80
70

100
60
80

50

60

40
30

40

20
20

10
Zone-III

Zone-II

Zone-I

0
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140
90

140

80

120

Juice temperature (C)

3.1. Temperature and TSS concentration proles during concentration

of juice samples

Juice temperature (C)

50

Total soluble solids,Brix

60

where Ypre,i,i and Yexp,i are the observed and predicted values and N
is the number of data.

3. Results and discussion

60

Temperature,C

80

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

#
N
100 X
Y pre;i  Y exp;i
MRPD
N i1
Y exp;i

140

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

"

70
100
60
80

50

60

40
30

40
20
20

10
Zone-I

0
0

20

Zone-III

Zone-II

40

60

80

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

mez, 1984) using Microsoft Excel (Anonymous, 2003). Regression

analysis for correlating various properties of the juice and total soluble solids was carried out with the Origin 6.1 package (Anonymous, 2000). Statistical validity of the predictive models was
evaluated using statistical parameters such as mean relative percentage deviation (MRPD) (McLaughlin and Magee, 1998) and correlation coefcient (r) according to the following equation:

Juice temperature (C)

562

0
100 120 140 160 180

Heating time (min)

Fig. 2. Timetemperature and timeTSS proles of different juices during jaggery
making process (a) sugarcane, (b) palmyra-palm, and (c) date-palm juice.

Table 2
Range of boiling temperatures and TSS concentration for Zones II and III for three
different juice samples
Sample
name

Sugarcane
juice
Palmyrapalm
Date-palm

Zone II
Boiling
temperature
(C)
100.5104
101103
100102

Zone III
TSS
concentration
(% w/w)

Boiling
temperature
(C)

TSS
concentration
(% w/w)

21.254.5

105121

16.845

104120

4681

103121

5181

1450

54.681.9

563

P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

35

90

SGJ

30

Colour values (L*,a*,b*)

PPJ

boiling point rise(0C)

DPJ
Sucrose

25

Expon. (Sucrose)
Expon. (SGJ)
Expon. (DPJ)

20

100

Expon. (PPJ)

15

L
a
b

70
60
50
40

b
More yellow

30
20
a

10
0

10

Poly (L)
Poly (a )
Poly (b)

More Dark

80

More red

-10
10

b
0
30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

Fig. 3. Boiling point rise of sucrose solution (Junk and Pancoast, 1973), sugarcane
juice, palmyra-palm juice and date-palm juice with the increase in total soluble
solids.

3.3. Change in colour during concentration of juice

Fig. 4ac shows the change in colour of three juice samples with
the increase in concentration of the juice samples. All these three
juice samples showed similar trends; the colour of the juice
changes from a dull colour (low a*, b*, and high L-values) to a dark
golden yellow followed by dark-brown (high +a* values referred to
red and high +b* values referred to yellow as per CIE colour space)
(Siddiqui and Nazzal, 2007).
Initially there was rapid change in L-value (lightnessdarkness)
up to 30 (% w/w) that includes Zone I and Zone II of boiling. However, a* and b*-values changed slowly. Further boiling caused little
difference in L-values but both a* and b* continued to change, and
the colour of the juice changed towards orange yellow suggesting
onset of caramelization process. At around 60 (% w/w), there was
rapid change in all L, a* and b* values, that conrms high rate of
caramelization of sugars. At this point, zone or localized heating
would be more common with reduced heat transfer in the entire
volume of highly viscous mass.
In sugarcane juice, extend of change in a* values were found
more compared to that of b* values in the latter part of Zone II
and early Zone III. This, however, was not true for other two juices,
viz., palmyra-palm and date-palm juices; both showed rapid
change in both a* and b* values leading to brown to dark-brown
colour of the product.
The successive change in colour of the juice with the change in


concentration D %DEw=w is presented in Fig. 5. These trends are
also similar for all three juice samples. From an initial high value,


DE
attained a minimum at around 2550 (% w/w) followed
D % w=w

Colour values (L*,a*,b*)

20

30

40

70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5

50

60

70

80

90

L
a
b
Poly (L)
Poly (a)
Poly (b)

More dark

More yellow

More red

10

Colour values (L*,a*,b*)

10

20

20

65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

70

80

90

More dark

L
a
b
Poly (L)
Poly (a)
Poly (b)
More yellow

More red

10

20

30

40

50

60

total soluble solids (%w/w)

Fig. 4. Change in colour values for (a) sugarcane, (b) palmyra-palm, and (c) datepalm juice samples with the increase in total soluble solids at 25 C.

by a steady increase. At this point, the reaction rate with reduced

volume and higher temperature facilitates the caramelization reaction. During this time, rapid and continuous scrapping the mass
with ladle and reduced heat input were necessary for avoiding


excessive charring and burning. Successive changes in D %DEw=w

3.4. Change in viscosity during concentration of juice

for palmyra-palm and date-palm were found to be more compared

to that of sugarcane juice. This might be attributable to the higher
amount of reducing sugars in the former two juice samples compared to that of sugarcane juice. It may be pertinent to mention

Fig. 6 shows changes in apparent viscosity of three juice samples with increasing TSS concentration at shear rate of 122.3 s1.
All of them showed a similar trend, i.e., viscosity remained almost

that, the rate of caramelization of fructose and glucose are more

than that of sucrose when the medium temperature is progressively increased keeping the pH constant (Buera et al., 1987).

564

P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

12

1400
Sugarcane juice
Palmyra-palm juice
Date-palm juice
Linear regression

Sugarcane juice

10

1350

Palmyra-palm juice

Density (kgm-3)

E / (%w/w)

Date-palm juice

1300
1250
1200
1150
1100
1050

1000
10

0
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

20

Average total soluble solids ( %w/w)

Fig. 5. Successive change in total colour (DE) with the corresponding change in
concentration (D (% w/w)) for three juice samples at different concentration.

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

90

Fig. 7. Change in density of sugarcane juice, palmyra-palm juice and date-palm

juice with the increase in total soluble solids at 25 C.

10000
-1 -1

Thermal conductivity (Wm K )

0.60
Sugarcane juice
Palmyra palm juice

Viscosity (mPa s)

1000

Date-palm juice
Sucrose

100

10

Sugarcane juice
Palmyra-palm juice
Date-palm juice
Linear regression

0.55
0.50
0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
10

1
20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

20

100.0

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

Fig. 6. Change in viscosity of sucrose solution (Junk and Pancoast, 1973), sugarcane
juice, palmyra-palm juice and date-palm juice with increase in total soluble solids
at 25 C.

invariant in the Zone I, slow increase in mid Zone II and rapid variation in the tail end of Zones II and III. Similar variation in viscosity
of sucrose solution has been reported by Junk and Pancoast (1973)
as shown in the same gure. At any corresponding value of TSS
concentration (>60 (% w/w)), the viscosity of date-palm juice was
higher followed by sugarcane and palmyra-palm juice in this order.
The higher levels of viscosity of these juice samples might be
attributed to different high molecular weight organic compounds
present in these juice. The nature of sugars in these juice samples
might have some contribution for high viscosity (Junk and Pancoast, 1973).
Table 3
Estimated model parameters a and Ecb for three juice samples at 25 C (Chirife and
Buera, 1997)
Parameter

Sugarcane juice

Palmyra-palm juice

Date-palm juice

a
Ecb
Correlation coefcient
MRPD

1.308
35.841
0.998
0.576

1.458
34.045
0.986
0.352

1.077
50.425
0.995
1.016

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

Fig. 8. Change in thermal conductivity of sugarcane juice, palmyra-palm juice and
date-palm juice with the increase in total soluble solids at 25 C.

4.2
4.0

Specific heat (kJkg-1K-1)

0.0

Sugarcane juice
Palmyra-palm juice
Date-palm juice
Linear regression

3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2.0
1.8
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Total soluble solids (%w/w)

Fig. 9. Change in specic heat of sugarcane juice, palmyra-palm juice and datepalm juice with the increase in total soluble solids at 25 C.

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P.V.K. Jagannadha Rao et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 90 (2009) 559566

Table 4
Mean relative percent deviation (MRPD) for various models
Sample

Density

Thermal conductivity

Choi and Okos

model
Sugarcane juice
MRPD
0.121

Specic heat

Linear
equation (12)

Pharm and Willix

parallel model

Pharm and Willix

series model

MaxwellEucken
model

Linear
equation (13)

Summation
model

Linear
equation (14)

0.011

4.813

10.258

4.897

0.229

0.664

0.061

Palmyra-palm juice
MRPD
0.183

0.215

7.301

6.816

1.652

2.881

2.544

3.129

Date-palm juice
MRPD
0.901

0.622

4.583

9.202

4.579

0.517

1.850

2.583

It is apparent from the above result that, the increase in viscosity (5060 mPa s) of the juice samples was rapid and became critical when the TSS concentration exceeded 60 (% w/w). Thus,
monitoring of viscosity change (5060 mPa s) of the juice could
be employed to identify the critical end point of the process.
Chirife and Buera (1997) have reported a simple exponential
model (gr a expEcb X) for predicting the viscosity of sugar and
oligosaccharide solutions; where a and Ecb are the model constants
and X is the mole fraction of sugar in the solution. The experimental data of three juice samples were found to t well with this
exponential model (MRPD < 10%; correlation coefcient 0.995
0.998). The model parameters, estimated for three juice samples,
are shown in Table 3.
3.5. Change in density, thermal conductivity and specic heat of juice
during concentration
Variation of density, thermal conductivity and specic heat of
different juice samples at different levels of concentration are
shown in Figs. 79. The density increases from 1023 to 1445;
1072 to 1359 and 1051 to 1413 kg m3 for sugarcane, palmyrapalm and date-palm juice, respectively, when the corresponding
TSS concentration levels varied from respective initial level to nal
level around 81 (% w/w). Both thermal conductivity and specic
heat of juice samples decreased with the increase in solid concentration (or decrease in water fraction). Thermal conductivity values
decreased from 0.59 to 0.35; 0.54 to 0.35 and 0.587 to
0.26 W m1 K1 for sugarcane, palmyra-palm and date-palm juice,
respectively, while the variation in concentration was from 7.6 to
81.9; 16 to 81 and 10.4 to 81 (% w/w) in that order. Corresponding
variation in specic heat of juice samples were from 3.97 to 2.42;
3.87 to 2.57 and 3.88 to 1.99 kJ kg1 K1. The increasing trend for
density and decreasing trend for thermal conductivity and specic
heats have been observed for many fruit juices and liquid foods
(Ramos and Ibarz, 1998; Cepeda and Villaran, 1999; Zainal et al.,
2000; Riedel, 1949; Gratao et al., 2005).
It may be noted that all the properties of three juice samples followed a linear trend with the concentration of solid. Eqs. (12)(14)
give generalized expressions for each of these properties

q 997:39 4:46C r 0:995

3

k 0:603  3:3  10 C

r 0:989

C p 4:149  2:46  102 C

r 0:983

12
13
14

The effect of concentration on these properties was found to be

highly signicant (p < 0.01). Different models for density (Nesvadba,
2005), thermal conductivity (Carson, 2006) and specic heat (Nesvadba, 2005) along with the linear equations (Eqs. (12)(14)) were
tested with each juice sample for prediction of these parameters. All
these models and the equations showed MRPD values < 10% (Table
4) suggesting good t.

All these properties corresponding to start of the critical zone

(Zone III) was estimated as 12231363 kg m3, 0.436
0.336 W m1 K1 and 2.912.16 kJ kg1 K1 for density, thermal
conductivity and specic heat respectively.
4. Conclusions
The change in temperature and TSS concentration with time of
heating showed similar trend for three juices-having three distinct
zones: Zone I, Zone II, and Zone III. Zone III is very critical and heating must be regulated in this zone to maintain the quality of nal
jaggery. The critical ranges of temperature, concentration and viscosity in this zone are estimated to be, respectively, 105121 C,
54.681.9 (% w/w), 4.5988 mPa s, for sugarcane juice; 104120 C,
4681 (% w/w) and 42559 mPa s for palmyra-palm juice; and
103121 C, 5181 (% w/w) and 23417 mPa s, for date-palm juice.
These values could be monitored conveniently by measuring the
temperature, TSS concentration or viscosity of concentrated juice
using handy instruments at the site. Viscosity of all three juice
samples tted well to simple exponential relationship. Density,
thermal conductivity and specic heat of each juice were found
to be linear function of concentration of solids. Measurement of
these parameters could also be used to decide the end point once
the critical concentration range is identied and applied in the
respective equation obtained. Although measurement of colour
and their analyses could be a preferred method, it is difcult to employ this methodology at site or to obtain the decisive results within reasonable time.
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