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Article history: Agro industry is a very important industrial sector worldwide, especially for countries like New Zealand
Received 22 January 2008 and Chile. The main objective of this research was to propose a new economic evaluation procedure to
Received in revised form 24 May 2008 optimize the design and operation of multiple effect evaporators and compare it with the traditional
Accepted 27 May 2008
chemical engineering approach of total cost minimization. The proposed strategy incorporates a quality
Available online 10 June 2008
factor expressed as a function of lycopene concentration on the final product to find the optimal number
of effects and operating conditions through the maximization of the net present value.
Keywords:
The mathematical model was implemented using Microsoft Excel and considered mass and energy bal-
Multi-effect evaporators
Economic evaluation
ances, specific relations for tomato concentration and a first order degradation kinetic for lycopene. The
Net Present Value results indicate that when augmenting the capacity of the evaporation system of 5 effects from 50 to
Quality 75 Ton/h, the lycopene retention increases from 95.25% to 96.27%. When evaluating the system through
Lycopene the logic of the total cost minimization, an optimum of 4 effects is found, but when evaluating the system
Process optimization using the maximization of the Net Present Value including lycopene as a quality parameter, the optimum
is 3 effects.
It appears of extreme relevance to consider quality as an intrinsic and integral part of the process
design, as it will then be possible to identify several potential improvements in different food processes.
Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Nomenclature
as mentioned before, this carotenoid pigment is what gives toma- system that must be solved (see Fig. 1 for a schematic representa-
toes their characteristic color, and, in addition, it has some medical tion of the system), operates on countercurrent and the total num-
benefits. ber of effects varies from 1 to ‘‘n”. The value of ‘‘n” and the
Usually, degradation rates in sensitive food components are operating conditions will be determined at the end of this work
modeled as a first order kinetic, as follows: through the maximization of the NPV.
The total mass balance in evaporator effect ‘‘i” is:
dY
r ¼ kY or ¼ kY ð1Þ
dt dðMi Þ
¼ F iþ1 Fvi F i ð5Þ
The Arrhenius equation relates specific reaction rate constant to dt
temperature according to: If the mass within the evaporator effect is controlled, then, un-
der steady state, Eq. (5) can be written as:
E
k ¼ k0 exp ð2Þ
RT 0 ¼ F iþ1 Fvi F i ð6Þ
The first order kinetic for lycopene degradation has been con- In the same way, a mass balance for soluble solids at effect i, can
firmed by Goula and Adamopoulos (2006). In the same research be written as:
study an equation was obtained to determine the reaction rate in dðMi X i Þ
the lycopene degradation, as a function of temperature and soluble ¼ F iþ1 X iþ1 F i X i ð7Þ
dt
solids concentration X expressed in °Brix.
Under steady state condition:
For X 55; K ¼ 0:121238 expð0:0188XÞ
0 ¼ F iþ1 X iþ1 F i X i ð8Þ
2317 1
exp ðmin Þ ð3Þ
T þ 273:15 The corresponding energy balance for the evaporator effect i, is:
dðHi Mi Þ
¼ F iþ1 Hiþ1 þ Fvi1 Hvi1 F i Hi Fvi Hvi Fci Hci þ Q p
dt
ForX 55; k ¼ 0:275271 exp ð0:00241X Þ
ð9Þ
2207 1
exp ðmin Þ ð4Þ Under steady state condition:
T þ 273:15
0 ¼ F iþ1 Hiþ1 þ Fvi1 Hvi1 F i Hi Fvi Hvi Fci Hci þ Q p
In our research study, the system to be modeled should con-
sider tomato concentration in the range of 5–35 °Brix, so only Eq. ð10Þ
(4) will be required.
The enthalpy of the tomato paste was estimated through the
specific heat (Cp), utilizing the following expression (Tonelli et
2.3. Model development
al., 1990):
The evaporation process involves mass and heat transfer (Him- Hi ¼ ð4:184 2:9337 X i Þ T i ð11Þ
melblau and Bischoff, 1968). The tomato juice was considered as a The following thermodynamic relationship describes the boil-
binary solution of water and soluble solids, both considered inert ing point rise (BPR) or boiling point elevation (BPE), whose param-
in a chemical sense. Under these considerations, one effect of the eters have been determined experimentally, it is one of the three
industrial evaporator can be shown in the manuscript by Miranda important properties (specific heat, viscosity and boiling point
and Simpson, 2005. rise), that must be specified in a multiple effects evaporator (Rizvi
So the macroscopic model is of the knowledge-type based on and Mittal, 1992). This property (BPR) is significant at high soluble
conservation laws and also empirical relationships which describe solids concentration. On a multiple effect equipment, the effective
the equilibrium phases. These relationships have been rearranged temperature differences decrease for the combination of boiling
from non-linear algebraic equations from literature, with the expe- point. The following correlation reported by Miranda and Simpson,
rience taken from the experimental site. Only the juice phase is 2005, was utilized.
considered for modeling.
The modeling assumptions are: Deb ¼ 0:175X 1:11 e3:86X P0:43 ð12Þ
– Homogenous composition and temperature inside each
Vapor was considered saturated within the evaporator. The fol-
evaporator.
lowing correlations were obtained from Perry and Chilton (1973),
– Constant juice level in each evaporator.
– Thermodynamic equilibrium (liquid–vapor) for the whole mod- and allow for the estimation of vapor properties with an error of
eled system. less than 1%.
For 40 °C < Tv < 70 °C.
The mathematical model developed in this research study in-
cluded specific relationships for lycopene degradation. The general Tvi ¼ 32:5515 P0:2898
i 17:7778 ð13Þ
For 70 °C < Tv < 135 °C. From Eq. (21) two significant terms can be distinguished total
investment (I); and annual benefits (bj). Where the investment
Tvi ¼ 39:0514 P0:2382 17:7778 ð14Þ
i – for a given capacity – can be expressed as a function of the num-
For 40 °C < Tv < 135 °C. ber of effects (NE), and benefits are related to the product’s unit-
price (Pu) and costs per unit (Cu).
Hvi ¼ 2509:2888 þ 1:6747 Tvi ð15Þ
bj ¼ Q j ðP u C u Þ ð22Þ
Hci ¼ 4:1868 Tci ð16Þ
Clearly, in food products, unit-price is not constant and it is di-
To estimate lycopene degradation (or retention) in each evapo- rectly related to the final quality. As aforementioned, product qual-
rator effects, a mass balance at effect i was carried out as follows: ity is related to the number of effects (NE), in general with process
arrangement (PA) and operating conditions (OC). In addition, the
dðX i Y i Þ dðM i X i Y i Þ
F iþ1 X iþ1 Y iþ1 F i X i Y i þ M i ¼ ð17Þ incidence of energy in unit-cost can be expressed as a function of
dt dt
the number of effects (NE) and operating conditions (OC) too.
Assuming steady state, perfect mixing and first order lycopene Therefore Eq. (21) can be expressed as a function of the numbers
degradation rate, the following expression is obtained. of effects and operating conditions, as follows:
F iþ1 X iþ1 Y iþ1 F i X i Y i M i X i ki Y i ¼ 0 ð18Þ X
n
Q j ðPu ðNE ; OCÞ C u ðN E ; OCÞÞ
NPV ¼ IðN E Þ þ ð23Þ
Solving for Yi. j¼1 ð1 þ iÞj
F iþ1 X iþ1 Y iþ1 For fixed operating conditions, to find the critical value for the
Yi ¼ ð19Þ
F i X i þ M i X i ki number of effects (NE for maximum NPV), it is necessary to derive
Eq. (23) and then equalize it to zero, so N E can be obtained (critical
Combining Eqs. (4) and (19) the following equation is obtained.
value). On the other hand, critical value N E will represent a maxi-
F iþ1 X iþ1 Y iþ1 mum for NPV if the second derivative is smaller than zero.
Yi ¼ 2207
F i X i þ Mi X i ð0:275271 expð0:00241 X i Þ expð T þ273:15 ÞÞ !
i
dðNPVÞ dðIðNðEÞÞ d Xn
Q j ðPu ðN E Þ C u ðN E ÞÞ
ð20Þ ¼ þ ð24Þ
dN E dNE dNE j¼1 ð1 þ iÞj
With the previous equation (Eq. (20)), lycopene concentration for
the output flowrate in each evaporator effect can be estimated Considering:
knowing the steady state values, the mass inside each evaporator b1 ¼ b2 ¼ ¼ bn ¼ b ¼ Q ðPu ðNE Þ C u ðNE ÞÞ ð25Þ
effect and the lycopene concentration in the input flowrate of each
evaporator effect. It is important to mention that when trying to Expressing the annual benefits as a present value, the second
estimate lycopene concentration, a degree of freedom is added to term of the right hand side of Eq. (21) can be reduced to:
the system, which is satisfied with the data of lycopene concentra- X
n
bj X
n
Q ðPu ðNE Þ CðNE ÞÞ
tion in the evaporator system input (feeding) flowrate. j
¼ ¼ K 0 ðPu ðNE Þ C u ðNE ÞÞ ð26Þ
j¼1 ð1 þ iÞ j¼1 ð1 þ iÞj
the restriction was equal areas for each evaporator effect. The input the final product is affected as a function of the residence time in
values to the model, shown in Table 1, were the same for all of the the evaporation system. While the number of effects increases in
systems and obtained from an actual industrial plant, comple- the evaporation system, the total residence time increases as well
mented with available online information from manufacturers. as the temperature at which the product is exposed, and, therefore,
there is also an increase of the lycopene degradation.
3.1. Steady state conditions Lycopene retention for the theoretical evaporation system for
tomato paste are shown in Fig. 4. Clearly, lycopene retention de-
From the mass and energy balance equations, liquid–vapor creases as the number of effects increase, which is justified by
equilibrium equation and specific relations for the tomato paste, the augmentation of the total residence time of the system and also
a steady state model for the evaporator system was developed, because of the temperature rise at which the tomato paste is ex-
considering one up to seven effects. From this information, it is posed to. In regards to the supply flowrate, there is an increase
possible to verify the decrease in vapor flowrate necessary for in the lycopene retention when augmenting the flowrate. The in-
the operational process and an increase in the total system area, crease in lycopene retention is less abrupt when the supply flow-
when augmenting the number of effects (Fig. 2). rate is over 100 ton/h.
To have a more precise view of the product behavior in the
evaporation system, residence time and their respective tempera- 3.3. Changes in processing capacity
tures, are presented in Table 2 for each one of the effects in the dif-
ferent systems. To have a more precise idea of the effect of temperature and res-
idence time effect on lycopene degradation process capacity was
3.2. Lycopene retention set to different values in a specific range. This was done by main-
taining the heat exchange area, and consequently, the number of
Lycopene retention in the final product was estimated for each effects (a 5 effect lineup system was considered, as it is the number
one of the alternative systems from the data obtained under steady that is regularly used in the tomato paste industry). Increasing the
state operation. From the results shown in Fig. 3, it is clear that processing capacity of the system, results in a increment of the
lycopene concentration in the final product has a linear decay required energy, therefore steam inlet pressure Pv0 will also be
when augmenting the number of effects in the evaporation system. increased. This also implies a rise of temperature in the evapora-
The previous result gives a clue of how the content of lycopene in tor’s effects. As shown in Fig. 5, the required vapor flowrate
increases proportionally to the evaporation system input flowrate,
steam inlet pressure increases in a second order polynomial way.
Table 1
Fig. 6 shows a decrease in the systems total residence time as well
Input data for mathematical model implementation
as an increase in each evaporator’s temperature.
Name Variable Value As it was expected, temperature inside each evaporator in-
Input flowrate FAl, kg/h 50,000 creases due to the augmentation of the system energy require-
Input temperature TAl, °C 98 ments. The systems residence time decreases because of the
Initial soluble solids XAl, kg ss/kg 0.05 increase of input flowrate and the conservation of the holdup va-
concentration
Input concentration YAl, kg Lic/kg SS 0.01
lue. As it is observed in Fig. 7, there is an increase in lycopene
of lycopene retention when augmenting the input flowrate associated to the
Final soluble solids X1, kg ss/kg 0.3 products residence time which decreases in the evaporation sys-
concentration tem, with no regard to the increase of the evaporator temperature
Steam inlet pressure Pv0, kPa 143.4
increment.
Temperature change Tvn Td, °C 2
in condensator This is of great importance, because it demonstrates that lyco-
Operation pressure in Pn, kPa 16.5 pene is not an obstacle to increase the processing capacity of the
evaporator ‘‘n” evaporation system, therefore the maximum capacity will only
Fig. 2. Total transfer area m2 and steam inlet flowrate ton/h vs. number of effects.
R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488–497 493
Table 2
Temperature data °C and residence time h for systems from 1 to 7 effects with an input flowrate of 50 ton/ha,b
Effect Number of effects in the system
number
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Residence Temp. Residence Temp. Residence Temp. Residence Temp. Residence Temp. Residence Temp. Residence Temp.
time time time time time time time
1 1.10 55.9 0.23 55.6 0.17 55.6 0.15 55.6 0.14 55.6 0.13 55.6 0.13 55.6
2 0.84 76.8 0.28 67.5 0.20 63.8 0.17 61.8 0.15 60.5 0.14 59.6
3 0.78 84.7 0.31 74.3 0.22 69.3 0.19 66.3 0.17 64.3
4 0.75 89.3 0.34 78.9 0.24 73.3 0.20 69.8
5 0.73 92.3 0.36 82.3 0.26 76.4
6 0.71 94.4 0.38 84.8
7 0.70 96.1
1 effect 2 effects 3 effects 4 effects 5 effects 6 effects 7 effects
Output pressure at each effect
P1, kPa 16.5 40.18 56.4 67.7 76.05 82.41 87.5
P2, kPa 16.5 27.7 36.5 44.76 51.6 57.31
P3, kPa 16.5 23.8 29.75 34.91 40.15
P4, kPa 16.5 21.82 26.38 30.32
P5, kPa 16.5 20.65 24.28
P6, kPa 16.5 19.86
P7, kPa 16.5
a
Feed enters effect 1.
b
Fresh vapor pressure: 143.4 kPa.
Fig. 5. Changes in energy consumption represented by the vapor flowrate kg/h and steam inlet pressure kPa as a function of the input flowrate ton/h.
Fig. 6. Residence time (min) and temperature °C as a function of the input flowrate ton/h.
Fig. 8. Cost evaluation for an evaporator system with an input flowrate of 50 ton/h.
be restricted by available vapor pressure, minimum specific hold- 4 effects. Nevertheless, when doing NPV maximization (Fig. 9),
up, pumps power among others. the number of optimum effects was 3 due to the inclusion of the
quality parameter on the evaluation procedure. Naturally, for dif-
3.4. Economic evaluation ferent processing capacities, the optimum number of effects varies
for both evaluation procedures. This is why differences are encoun-
The economic evaluation consists of determining the optimum tered in the optimum number of effects in some operation ranges.
number of effects and operating conditions of the system. The eco- In Fig. 10, the optimum number of effects is presented for different
nomic evaluation of the system was done in two different ways. operation ranges. As it is observed in Fig. 10, when evaluating the
Firstly, an economic evaluation with the concept of minimizing evaporation system, including the quality parameter, in the range
the total costs, and secondly, an economic evaluation to maximize of 25 ton/h through 50 ton/h, the optimum number of effects de-
the NPV taking into account the impact of the process design and creases, in comparison to the evaluation done based on total costs
operating conditions on product quality. only. This is explained with previous results where a decrease of
lycopene retention was a result of the increase of the number of ef-
3.5. Optimum number of effects fects. It is for this reason that the NPV maximization, in this partic-
ular case tends to be a lower number of effects.
The economic evaluation was carried out by simple inspection.
This is where the steady state conditions for systems with 1–7 ef- 3.6. Optimum operating conditions
fects were found, and then total cost minimization and NPV max-
imization methodologies were used. The search was focused to In the search for the optimum operating conditions of evapora-
find the number of effects that minimize the total cost and, in addi- tion system, the system was economically evaluated under a vari-
tion, to find the number of effects that maximize the NPV. able steam inlet pressure (Pv0) where the inclusion of lycopene as a
The results for each evaluation systems are shown in Figs. 8 quality parameter was considered. As a constraint to the problem,
and 9. The total cost minimization (Fig. 8) shows an optimum of it was estimated that the output temperature of the tomato paste
Fig. 9. Net Present Value evaluation for evaporator systems with input flow of 50 ton/h.
496 R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488–497
Fig. 10. Optimum number of effects for different input flow rates ton/h according to total cost minimization and Net Present Value maximization.
It appears of extreme relevance to consider quality as an intrinsic Himmelblau, D.M., Bischoff, K.B., 1968. Process analysis and simulation:
deterministic system. Wiley, New York, USA.
and integral part of the process design, as it will then be possible to
Kern, D. 1999. Procesos de Transferencia de Calor. Editorial Continental S.A. Mexico.
identify several potential improvements in different food processes. Maroulis, A.Z., Maroulis, Z.B., 2005. Cost data analysis for the food industry. J. Food
Eng. 67 (3), 289–299.
Acknowledgements Miranda, V., Simpson, R., 2005. Modeling and simulation of an industrial multiple
effect evaporator: tomato concentrate. J. Food Eng. 66 (2), 203–210.
Perry, J., Chilton, C., 1973. Chemical Engineers Handbook. Editorial Mc Graw-Hill,
Author Ricardo Simpson is grateful for the financial support USA.
provided by CONICYT through the FONDECYT project number Peters, M., Timmerhaus, K., West, R., 2003. Plant Design and Economics for Chemical
Engineers. Editorial Mc Graw-Hill, USA.
1070946. Author Sergio Almonacid is grateful for the financial sup- Rizvi S.H., Mittal G.S. 1992. In: Van Nostrand Reinhold (Ed.), Experimental Methods
port provided by CONICYT through the FONDECYT project number in Food Engineering..
1070512. Schoorl, D., Holt, J.E., 1983. An analysis of the effect of quality on prices of
horticultural procedure. Agricultural Systems 12 (2), 75–99.
Shi, J., Qu, Q., Kakuda, Y., Jun, S., Jiang, Y., Koide, S., Shim, Y., 2007. Investigation of
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