Pineapple Processing Plant

System Design
Debabish Plc Farm

3/1/2011
Revolt Engineering Consultancy Services
 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Contents
I. BACKGROUND STUDIES OF PLANT ..................................................................................... 3
1.1 Processing plant system design ........................................................................................ 3
1.1.1 Processing Plant ............................................................................................................. 3
1.1.2 Fresh fruit packaging systems ................................................................................... 4
1.2 Processing plant capacity and production plan ............................................................ 4
1.4 Products process and descriptions ................................................................................ 5
1.4.1 Process flow of dried pineapple fruit ....................................................................................... 5
1.4.2 Process flow of pineapple jam ............................................................................................... 7
2.1 MATERIAL BALANCE ............................................................................................................ 8
2.1.1 Raw Materials Preparations Stage ............................................................................ 9
2.1.2 Jam Preparations Stage ......................................................................................................... 11
2.1.3 Drying of pineapple slice....................................................................................................... 13
2.2 ENERGY BALANCE .............................................................................................................. 14
2.2.1 Energy for drying pineapple slices ...................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Energy for Jam Boiling ............................................................................................... 15
2.3 DESCRIPTION OF PLANT EQUIPMENTS AND MACHINERIES ................................ 17
III. PRODUCTION FACILITIES ................................................................................................. 19
3.1 Plant layout ........................................................................................................................... 19
3.2 Building Design .................................................................................................................... 20
3.3 Processing room .................................................................................................................. 22
3.4 Quality control ...................................................................................................................... 22
3.5 Store room for finished products .................................................................................. 23
3.6 Other facilities ...................................................................................................................... 23
3.7 Sanitary facilities ................................................................................................................. 24
3.8 Total Land and Building Area ........................................................................................... 24
IV. UTILITIES............................................................................................................................... 26
4.1 Water Consumption ............................................................................................................ 26
4.2 Electricity Consumption.................................................................................................... 28
4.2.1. Electricity consumption for machinery .................................................................... 28

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

I. BACKGROUND STUDIES OF PLANT

The SNNPRG area of Ethiopia produces a wide variety of tropical fruits that
are currently being sold on the fresh market. Pineapple is on of the tropical
fruit specially produced at Sidama zone of the region. Debaiash Plc. new
investment plans to cultivate smooth cayenne pineapple Loko Abaya woreda
and sales the product by adding the value through processing activities at
the Processing plant of the project at Loko Abaya woreda capital city.

1.1 Processing plant system design

1.1.1 Processing Plant

The small processing plant that has been proposed could process pineapple
fruit as a major proudest and will have a capacity to process also other
fruits like mango and banana for sale throughout Ethiopia and grade and
package some of the pineapple witch meets export standard for export
market. The plant will have a product of pineapple slice, jam, and dried
pineapple as major production plan. .

The plant system design will have to , a multi-purpose cannery, capable of

handling small quantities of fruit and processing them into saleable items
such as fruit in syrup, jam, and dried fruits. This will require batch-type
operations on semi-automatic equipment and a considerable amount of
manual labor since the volume of each fruit does not warrant specialized
high-speed machinery
Processing the many different types of fruit that are available will allow the
plant to operate throughout the year and provide employment for a
permanent work force. During peak seasons, temporary workers will be
required to augment the permanent staff. The plant has limited capacity
based on using semi-automatic equipment that can handle the anticipated
volumes of fruit.

The prime considerations in planning a small plant are flexibility of

operations and the ability to handle a variety of fruits on a seasonal basis.
The plant has been designed to produce pineapple and mango products, fruit
pulps, nectars, sliced fruits, and jam. In order to manufacture all of these
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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

products, a two-line plant has been developed; one line primarily for dried
pineapple and other for sliced fruits, and. jams

1.1.2 Fresh fruit packaging systems

Fresh fruit packing. and shipping fresh fruit from the SNNPRG area farmers
initially contracted with company and from company farm to potential export
markets business idea is a new concept of Debabaish plc . A minimum
amount of mechanization has been included due to new entry market
product. The minimum technology for packaging house includes soak tank
washer, an inspection conveyor to eliminate unsuitable material, a brush
washer, a wax applicator, a distribution conveyor, and packing stations.

1.2 Processing plant capacity and production plan

The processing plant capacity considerations for fixing capacity of plant was
determined by evaluating availability of raw materials , marketing
assessment results, skill requirements, cold storage requirements,
investment cost capital requirements of the plant, and others.

UOM Quantity Production Program ( Tones)

Jam Dried fruit
Annual Tones 125 99 26
Daily Kg 417 330 87

Table 1-1 Production by product type and annual bases

Annual Production Daily Production

( Packaging Unit) ( Packaging Unit )
Jam Dried fruit Jam Dried fruit
450g /bottle 250 gm/bag 450g/bottle 250 gm/bag
219,225 105,000 731 350

Table 1-2 Production by product packaging unit

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

1.3 Products process and descriptions

Jam is a fruit product prepared from fruit pulp by boiling with sufficient
quantity of sugar and pectin to a moderately thick consistency. The
distinguishing characteristics of the product are a substantial amount of fruit
ingredient used in the formulation (450 g/kg of jam) and high soluble solid
content of the final product.(TSS = 68° Brix). Jams are widely used for
bread dressing to sweeten cakes and flavor yogurt.
Pineapple jam is prepared from the pulp, which is extracted from completely
sound pineapple fruits mixed with sugar and processed to suitable
consistency. Pectin is added to impart a texture to the jam that allows
transportation without change, which gives a good flavor release, and
minimize syneresis. Citric acid is added to lower the pH of the fruit for better
consistency of the product.

Dried tropical fruits are mainly sold in health food shops as snack products
and as cooking ingredients. Dried tropical fruits are low in fat; contain
natural sugars, vitamins and natural antioxidants, which are supposed to
have properties, prevent heart disease and cancer.

There is very little value addition in the fruits industry as most fruits are
exported fresh and unprocessed. Dried fruits exported include apple
bananas, pineapples, mangoes, papaya and jack fruit. Fruit drying, which is
widely practiced by exporters, is done using locally made wooden solar
driers would yield better results if companies scale up to higher technology.
The drying process begins with washing the fruit, cleaning, and peeling,
slicing, putting the slices on trays and drying. Most processors sundry the
fruit on trays (driers) covered with nets to ward off insects, though hybrid
driers, which are indoors are used during rainy periods. When dried using
direct sunshine, the dry fruit retains the flavor and test while loosing the
juice content. This is one way of extending the shelf life of the fruits, which
are highly perishable due to the high water content. It takes one to two
days to dry the fruit using solar driers and eight hours only with a hybrid
drier
1.3.1 Process flow of dried pineapple fruit
Before actual processing, pineapple fruits go through preliminary treatments
to render them more suitable for processing. These include sorting, grading,
washing, removal of unwanted parts, peeling, size reduction, slicing, dicing,

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

and others. The specific unit operations applied will depend on the type of
product being made. After the pre processing operations, the peeled
pineapple and loss from slice and coring will transfer to the pulping machine
and blended at desired ratios. The sliced pineapple will be transfer to drier
after inspection and rejections of unfit slice for draying quality requirements.

HARVESTED
WASHING
FRUIT SORTING

REJECTED FRUIT
SORT AND
GRADE

PEELING/ DE
CORING

SORTING SLICING
(4-6 MM)

DRAYING
(60- 70°C)
PULPING
FILLING INTO
BAG AND
SEALING
TO JAM
PROCESSING

COOLING, LABELING AND STORAGE

Fig 1-1 Process Flow Chart of Pre- processing and dried fruit
productions

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1.3.2 Process flow of pineapple jam

The pulp produced after extraction of juice is boiled along with sugar and
citric acid at a controlled temperature. Upon boiling required permitted
colors, flavors and preservatives are added. It is then cooled to required
temperature forming a jelly like consistency. The jam thus obtained is filled
in bottles, sealed, labeled and packed in cartons for dispatch.

PULP FROM JUICE EXTRACTOR

SORTING
REJECTED

COLOR
SUGAR OTHERS
HEATING AND CITRIC ACID
CITRIC ACID
MIXING PECTIN
PECTIN

COOLING AND STORE

FILLING INTO JARS

, LABELING AND STORAGE

Fig 1-2 Process Flow Chart of Jam Processing

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

II. MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENTS

The specification and description for equipments and machineries of

processing plant is discussed in this section. To estimate the throughput of
the machineries and equipments first, the weight of material that is handled
at each stage of processing should be determined. This task has partially
been covered in material balance. Capacity, material of construction and
maintenance requirements are included in equipment and machinery
specification. All fruit contact surface should be smooth, non-toxic,
unaffected by food products, and capable of withstanding repeated exposure
to normal cleaning

2.1 MATERIAL BALANCE

There are two stages involved in planning the amount of materials required
to produce a given food product. The first stage is to determine the amount
of each ingredient needed to formulate a product. The formulation results
were taking from finings of the researchers and recommendations by the
industrial expertise...

The next stage is to determine the amount of losses that are expected in
commercial production. Nearly all fruit processing result in loss of material.
These arise from peeling or de-stoning, unsatisfactory fruits rejected during
sorting, spillage during filling into packs and from food stick on equipments
and lost during washing. Peeling and de-stoning losses are specific to the
type of fruits being processed. The losses were determined from laboratory
trials for two pineapple cultivars and local mango. However, other losses
depend greatly on the degree and effectiveness of the quality assurance
methods used to reduce the losses. Therefore, they cannot be determined
from the experimental result. The estimates were made from the reported
data on material loss in well-managed fruit and vegetable processing plants
(Table 2.1). Quality assurance systems to minimize these losses will be
implemented as management stsreegy of the plab. Therefore, the
processing plant is considered to work on lower level of the reported range

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Table 2.1 Process loss in a well managed fruit and vegetable processing
plant

Stages in a process Typical loss (%)

Sorting 5-50
Slicing/dicing 5-10
Batch preparation 2-5
Boiling* 5-10
Filling and sealing 5-10
The loss does not include loss due to evaporation of water * Source:
Fellows, P. Midway Technology. Ltd, UK, 1997

The main production system is divided into three categories: raw material
preparation, jam processing and drying for suitable handling of material
balance calculations. The raw material balance for the production of
pineapple jam and dried pineapple from Smooth Cayenne cultivar is
presented. The material balance calculations are computed backward
starting from the daily production of final products. The results of material
balance for plant products is summarized on

2.1.1 Raw Materials Preparations Stage

A. Raw Material Preparation

This process stage involves sorting and grading, peeling, coring, slicing and
pulping of the fruit flesh. The amount of pineapple required producing 330
kg of jam and 86 kg of dried pineapple is 1237 kg fresh fruit. The average
weight of Smooth Cayenne pineapple fruit is 1.34 kg. Hence, 923 pieces of
pineapple is handled in a day.

B. Sorting/Grading
Fruits intended for processing has to pass a serious of quality inspections.
Any fruits that do not meet the required standard are removed. The
percentage of rejected depend on source and quality of fruits. Hence, the
maximum acceptable reject level should be standardized between the

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processor and the fruit supplier. For this specific case 5% reject, loss is
considered.

Table 2-2 Sorting/Grading Materials Estimate

weight of initial fresh pineapple 1237 kg of fresh pineapple day
weight of fruit reject 61.85 kg /day
weight of sorted pineapple = 1175.15 kg /day

C. Peeling and Coring

Pineapple has to be peeled and cored if it is to be used for drying whereas
for jam production the core is not removed. In laboratory trials, it was found
that the peel and core of pineapple accounts to 38% and 8% of the fresh
fruit and peeled pineapple weight respectively. From the sorted pineapple,
82% of the peeled pineapple is used for drying operation. Therefore,

Table 2-3 Peeling and Coring Materials Estimate

weight of pineapple peel = 446.56 kg /day
weight of peeled pineapple = 728.59 kg /day
weight of peeled pineapple used for drying = 597.45 kg /day
weight of peeled pineapple used for jam = 131.15 kg /day
weight of core = 47.80 kg /day
weight of peeled and cored pineapple = 549.65 kg /day

D. Slicing
Slicing of fruits produces certain pieces with defined thickness and shape,
which may not meet the process requirements. The unfit slices should be
removed because they result in non-uniform drying and inconsistent product
quality. The slicing loss is estimated as 5%. The weight of fruit directed to
slicing operation is 549.65 kg/day

Table 2-4 Slicing Materials Estimate

Weight of slicing loss = 27.48 kg /day
Weight of sliced pineapple: 522.17 kg /day

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

E. Pulping
The daily consumption of fruit pulp for production of 100 kg pineapple jam
including process losses is 50.4 kg as shown in Table 4.18. 39.2 kg of this
quantity is obtained from fresh fruit while the rest 11.2 kg is supplemented
by slicing loss (8.2 kg) and core (3.0). The core and the slicing loss are
blended in 1:3.7 ratios to maintain the original composition of the fresh fruit.

Table 2-5 Pulping Materials Estimate

Fresh Fruit 131.15 kg /day
Loss from slicing 27.48 kg /day
Loss from core 6.63 kg /day
165.26 kg /day

2.1.2 Jam Preparations Stage

A. Batch formulation

For the formulation of jam, 348.48 kg of raw materials and ingredients are
required to formulate pineapple jam from Smooth Cayenne cultivar. 2 %
material loss during batch preparation, 5 % during boiling and 5 % during
filing and sealing is estimated. The total amount of these losses is 12%.
Therefore, the total amount of raw materials required for production of 100
kg pineapple jam including the process losses is computed as

Table 2-6 Jam Processing Materials Estimate

Raw materials and ingredients are required 348.48 kg /day
Weight of batch ingredient including process loss 396.00 kg /day
Material loss in batch preparation 7.92 kg /day
Weight of boiling batch ingredient: 388.08 kg /day

A batch of jam should be boiled within approximately 20 minutes to maintain

the quality of product. Therefore, two batches can be prepared in one hour.
The time allocated to boil 379.98 kg batch ingredients mixture is 4 hours

The weight of raw material and ingredients to be handled per batch

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Table 2-7 Per batches Materials Estimate

Time for one batch 20 minutes
Number of batch per hour 2 batches/hr
Time for batch processing 4 hr/day

Total number of batches 8

The weight of raw material and ingredients 48.51 Kg/batch
to be handled per batch:

Table 2-8 shows the composition of the batch and weight of raw materials
and ingredients required for daily production of 100 kg of jam including the
process losses.

Table 2-8 Daily consumption of raw materials and ingredients

Ingredient Unit Input per batch Daily consumption
Fruit pulp Kg 20.658 165.26
Sugar kg 26.4 211.2
Citric acid g 207.9 1663.2
Pectin g 231 1848
Total kg 47.50 379.98

A. Boiling
The jam yield from smooth cayenne pineapple was 95.5 % as it was shown in
section 4.34. The weight of batch ingredients before boiling is 117.6 kg. The
material loss during boiling is estimated as 5% from Table 4.17.

Table 2-9 Boiling Materials Balance Estimate

weight of jam = 370.62 Kg/day
weight of lost jam = 18.53 Kg/day
weight of jam transferred to next stage= 352.09 Kg/day

B. Filling and Sealing

The material loss at this stage is due to spillage and material sticking to filling
equipment and lost during washing. Material loss was estimated as 6 % during jam
filling and sealing.

Table 2- 10 Filling and Sealing material balance estimates

Weight of material loss 21.13
Weight of filled and sealed jam 330.96

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

C. Labeling and Packaging

The jam is packed in 450 g net weight in glass jars and placed in cardboard box,
which can hold 24 jars. The label is placed on both consumer pack and cardboard
box.

Table 2- 11 Labeling and Packaging

Quantity of jars to pack daily production 726.00 units/ day
Cardboard boxes to pack daily production: 29.70 units/ day
labels for glass jars 762.30 units/ day
labels on outer package 31.19 units/ day

2.1.3 Drying of pineapple slice

A. Raw Materials
Material balance around a dryer with 86% moisture content of slice pineapple and
final moisture content of dried pineapple slices 15% yields a product recovery of
16.8% from sliced pineapple.

Table 2-12 Drying of pineapple slice

Weight of sliced pineapple 522.17 kg /day
Weight of dried pineapple 87.72 kg /day

B. Filling and sealing

The drying process resulted in some poor quality products that could not be sold or
reprocessed. The process loss at this stage is estimated as 5% from

Table 2-13 Filling and sealing

Weight of material loss = 4.39 kg /day
Weight of sealed dried pineapple: 83.34 kg /day

C. Labeling and packaging

The dried pineapple slices are packed in 250g polypropylene plastic bags and
placed in 5 kg cardboard boxes.

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Table 2- 14 Labeling and Packaging

Quantity of polypropylene bag 344.00 kg /day
Cardboard boxes 17.20 kg /day

2.2 ENERGY BALANCE

The energy balance has been made to estimate the energy required for drying
pineapple and jam boiling.

2.2.1 Energy for drying pineapple slices

To determine the amount of fuel required for drying the amount of moisture
that should be removed from pineapple slices should be determined first. For
inhibition of enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions, the water activity of
the dried pineapple should fall below 0.45. The amount of moisture that
should be removed form sliced fruit ( Mw) is computed as follows

Mw = M p ( Mi - Mf ) / 100- M f

Where is the weight of dried pineapple, kg, is initial moisture content of sliced
pineapple (%wb) and is final moisture content of dried pineapple (% wpMiMfM).
From material balance =522.17 kg /day. Substituting the value into (Eq.1) M w =
436.16 kg/day

The quantity of heat required to evaporate this quantity of water is determined

from

Q=Mw X h fg
Where Q is the amount of energy required for the drying process, kJ/day is
latent heat of evaporation, kJ / kg water, h fg = .38 kJ / kg water

Hence, the amount of heat required to evaporated 436.16 kg water is

Q= 436.16 X 2.38 kJ / kg 1,038.07 mJ/day

Typical convective dryers account for about 85% of all industrial dryers (Mujumdar
and Beke, 2003). The Overall thermal efficiency (Q’) of fuel fired tray dryers is

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

between 30 and 40 % (Earl, 1983). An average thermal efficiency is 35%.

Therefore amount of heat required for drying pineapple slice is

Q= Q/ = 2965.91 mJ/day

2.2.2 Energy for Jam Boiling

The heat energy required for boiling of jam is determined from energy balance
equations. Figure 4.6 illustrated the heat inflow and outflow in jam boiling pan.
From energy balance computation it was found that 145.05 mJ of energy is
required to product 100 kg jam from pineapple and mango.

Fig 2-1 Heat inflow and outflow in jam boiling pan

Where
F is quantity of batch mixture fed into boiling pan, kg /day
V is the quantity of evaporated water, kg /day
P is the quantity of jam, kg /day

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Q is quantity of heat supplied to the boiling pan

CF and C are specific heat capacity of the feed and the final product
respectively, P
KJ/ kg °C
TF and TP temperature of the feed and jam respectively, °C is the reference
temperature, °C Tref
Hv is enthalpy of the vapor at product temperature, KJ/ kg
href is enthalpy of the liquid water at reference temperature, KJ/ kg

Taking the reference temperature to be that of the feed temperature (eq.4)

becomes

From material balance P = 370.62 kg, V= 18.53 kg /day. The processing plant is
recommended to be located at Awassa where the altitude is 1,700 m above seal
level. Jam boils at 98.8°C at 1700 m above sea level (Elizabeth & Judy, 2006). TF
=25 °C (ambient temperature). From = 100.7 KJ/ kg. Csteam table Hv = 2672.1
KJ/ kg and href P =3.6 KJ/ kg °C. By Substituting these values in to (eq. 5) the
quantity of heat required for boiling 117.6 kg pineapple jam was calculated as Q =
145.05 MJ

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

2.3 DESCRIPTION OF PLANT EQUIPMENTS AND

MACHINERIES
Specification of plant equipments and machineries for the processing plant is shown
in Table 2-15 and Table 2-16. Detail description of major equipments and
machineries is discussed below.

Table 2-15 Specification and cost of equipments & machineries

for raw material preparation
Processing stage Equipment Quantity

Weighing/sorting/grading Platform weighting scale 2

50 Kg
Enamel coated wooden sorting table (1.80 m x 2
1.20 m x 0.8 m )
Plastic crate 50
Cleaning 25 liter polyethylene washing tank 6
Water storage tank 1500 liter 2
Plastic crates 10
Pineapples skin striper For removing the left out pulp 200 kg/hr 1
Peeling /coring Pineapple core seizers 25/30 pineapples /minute 1
Slicing Multi fruit slicer capable of slicing mango and
pineapple , capacity = 200 kg/hr
Pulp extraction Stainless steel multi fruit pulpler with capacity 1
100 kg/hr
20 liter Plastic buckers 4

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Table 2-1 6 Specification and cost of equipments and machineries for jam
making and drying

Processing Stage Equipment specification Quantity

Ingredient Scale (from 50 to 100 kg). 2
weighing/Blending
Scale (from 3 to 5 kg). 2
Scale (from 100 to 500 gr). 2
Boiling A small boiler producing 250 kilos of steam per hour 2
Hand refractometer (0 - 90° Brix) 1
Stainless steel thermometer (0 - 150°C 2
Refractometer (0 - 30° Brix) 2
Jam cooling A vertical autoclave with a capacity for about 200-500 g jars. 1
2 cast aluminum pots with lid (with a capacity of 1
approximately 50 liters).
Bottle cleaning Two double-wall kettles. 1
/sterilization
20 liter plastic buckets 4
10 liter Stainless steel vessel equipped with gate valve at the 2
bottom
Table scale measurement range of 0-2 kg tolerance + 1 g 2
Labeling/packaging Enamel coated wood table (1.8 m x 1.2 m x 0.80 m) 2
A pressure bottles closer’ 200 jars/ hr

1
Dryer Fuel fired tray dryer with drying capacity 600 kg / batch 1
Bag sealer Manually operated heat sealer with capacity 200 packs /hr 1

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III. PRODUCTION FACILITIES

When considering setting up of fruit and vegetable processing plant, the

infrastructure required to lodge all machinery and equipments is often given
priority. The infrastructure for food processing should meet basic industrial
health and hygienic practices. Details studies have to be conducted on
location of the processing plant, plant layout, construction of the buildings
provide basic services and installations.

3.1 Plant layout

Plant layout is the plan of optimum arrangement of an industrial facility. It
embraces the physical arrangement of various departments, machines,
equipments and services for economical, efficient and effective functioning
while planning the production of any goods. The food processing plant layout
has been developed taking into consideration international and national code
of hygienic practices. Recommended international hygienic practices for
dried fruit processing plant construction, layout and sanitary facilities were
covered in Codex code of hygienic practice for dried fruits Codex
Alimentarius (1969).

The processing plant layout is shown in Figure 3-1. In setting up the plant
layout the following points were considered. Machineries and equipments are
arranged in a continuous line without a path crossing to step up efficiency
and avoid cross contamination. The ‘dirty’ area where the raw material is
washed, peeled and cored is separated physically from the clean area where
pulp extraction, slicing, boiling and packaging is carried out. This layout
reduces the risk of contaminating semi processed and finished products by
incoming raw materials. A separate building is arranged for storage of
ingredients, final products and packaging materials. Sanitary facilities were
provided in plant layout for preserving health and sanitary standards. The
sanitary facilities are located in separate area from the area where the raw
materials are received and processed to prevent possible contamination.
Hand washing basin is also provided at entrance to the toilets.

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Special emphasis is taken in locating a dryer and bottle washing facility. A

dryer is placed outside the processing room in open shade because the
processing room is humid area which

requires a great amount of heat to dry the air. Bottle washing is placed
outside the processing room to avoid the risk of glass splinters mixed with
the final product.

3.2 Building Design

During construction of the building of the processing plant the following
aspects should be addressed. The processing room contains a considerable
heat that evolves from jam boiling. Therefore the roof should be over
hanged and roof vents should be included to allow heat and steam to escape
and crate a flow of fresh air through the processing room. The vent must be
screened with mesh to keep insects and birds out of the room. A paneled
ceiling should be fitted in the processing and storage rooms to prevent dust
accumulation and contaminate products. There should be no holes in the
paneling, in the roof and where the roof joins the walls to inhibit access to
birds’ rodents and insects. Floors should be made of good quality concrete,
without holes or cracks. The floor should be curved up to meet the wall to
prevent dirt collecting in corners. The floor should slope to a drainage
channel, fitted with metal grating that are easily removed for cleaning. A
wire mesh should be fitted over the drain to prevent rats and crawling
insects from entering the room.

All interior walls should be plastered or rendered with concrete. They should
have no cracks that could harbor dirt or insects. The lower parts of the walls
are most likely to get dirty and they should be tiled or painted with white
gloss water proof paint at least one and half meter above the floor. Higher
parts of walls can be painted with emulsion paints. All windows should be
screened with mosquito mesh to prevent access for flying insects. The
windows should also be made to slope so that they do not accumulate dust.
Processing room doors should be fitted with thin metal chains or strips of
plastics hanged from door lintels. Store room doors should not have gaps
beneath them and should be kept closed to prevent insects and rodents.

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1. Reception & weighing 16. Packaging dried fruit

2. Cold room. 17 Bottle cleaning and rinsing
3. Fruit sorting & washing 18. Ingredients storage
4. Peeling/coring/destining 19. Packaging materials storage
5. Pulp extraction 20. Final products storage
6. Batch preparation 21. Cafeteria
7. Jam boiling 22. Office
8. Jam filling and sealing 23. Quality control office
9. Jam cooling 24. Women rest room
10. Labeling and packaging 25. Women shower room
11. Fruit slicing 26. Men rest room
12. Tray loading
27. Men shower room
13. Drying
28. Waste treatment
14. Unloading the dried fruit
15. Filling and sealing dried fruit 29. Water tanker

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3.3 Processing room

The processing room is the main facility in a plant of this type. It is here that
the different materials used in the processing of the raw material are stored.
On such premises, a continuous production line may be set up, or simply an
ensemble of small machines allowing the products to be processed by hand
and on a discontinuing basis. Ideally, this room should be big enough to
lodge all of the necessary equipment on a continuous line, even in barely
automated facilities. Even in the case of work benches where the work is
performed by hand, the process must be carried out on the basis of a
continuous line, to step up efficiency.

The processing room should ideally be divided into areas where different
functions are performed. This may be achieved by separating such areas
physically. Generally, there is a "dirty" area, that is, an area where the raw
material is washed and peeled, and where operations

like pitting, coring, and the removal of inedible parts are performed. This
"dirty" area must not extend to the section of the plant or of the processing
room where the cleanest operations are carried out, like pulp extraction,
grinding, cutting and the filling of containers.

One way of achieving this separation is through the use of light partitions,
painted wood panels used to simply separate one area from the other. Much
care should be taken to avoid contamination by run-off waters. The
recontamination of materials that have already been washed and disinfected
is a common problem in home or small-scale industrial processing plant

3.4 Quality control

Ideally, quality control operations should be performed in small quarters,

which may also be separated from other areas by wood panels, where the
basic tests required establishing the quality of a given raw material or a
given process may be performed. This area should preferably be equipped
with a small sink, running water and a counter where tests may be carried
out.

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It should be separated from the other quarters so that basic calculations

may be carried out in a quiet environment.

3.5 Store room for finished products

The storeroom is fundamental in a plant of this type. It is often necessary for

the product to remain under observation before being consumed.
Sometimes, the products must settle for a while to achieve a certain level of
homogeneity, whereas in other cases the material must await labeling.
Finally, in addition to being able to rely on a room where the material may
be safely stored, it is also necessary to have access to a site where the
process may be completed. Such a place must be clean, the temperature
and humidity levels must be appropriate (less than 25 C° and 60% of
relative humidity), and it must be protected from foreign matter, and
naturally, from thieves. It should be easily accessible, so that tests may be
performed during product storage, and any problems may be detected on
the spot.

3.6 Other facilities

Some equipment, due to its nature, cannot be installed in the main facility of
a processing plant. The boiler is an example. If the plant is equipped with a
small steam generator, it should be located outside the processing room, to
avoid contamination problems, and at the same time ensure personnel
safety.

A drier is another special system, which should be installed in a rather dry

place and not in the processing room, as this is an especially humid area in
the plant.

Dehydrated products should normally be very low in moisture, a condition

that can only be fulfilled if dehydration is carried out in an especially dry
place, even if an artificial drier is employed. Otherwise, the energy
consumption cost will be very high, since a great amount of heat will be
required to dry the air.

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

3.7 Sanitary facilities

Sanitary facilities are believed to deserve special mention, due to the significant
role that they play in preserving health and sanitary standards in a plant of this
type.

The conditions in which the sanitary facilities operate, the type of evacuation
system serving the plant, the location of the facilities and the sanitation plan are
crucial to the quality of the process.

One basic condition is for the facilities to be erected in a separate location from the
area where the raw material is received and processed, to prevent possible
flooding. The facilities must be periodically disinfected, and the firm's supervisors
must exercise very strict control in this regard.

It should be borne in mind that even though the current cholera outbreak in Latin
America is viewed as an isolated case, health care should not be a priority in times
like these alone.

Indeed, there is always some micro-organism around that may be detrimental to

the health of whoever consumes the product.

Sanitary facilities must never be short of water. Its supply must be guaranteed,
since the cleanliness of the toilets will determine the cleanliness of the workers, and
the products' sanitary qualities will ultimately depend on the cleanliness of the
workers.

3.8 Total Land and Building Area

The required area (m2) and construction cost for the production facilities
essential for the successful operation of the processing plant is shown in
Table 3-1. A total area required for the processing plant is 2000 m2
including future plan out of which 108 m2 is to be covered by buildings while
a covered are of 96 m2 is for parking, storage of waste material and future
expansion.

The cost of construction of a building should be appropriate to the size and

expected profitability of the business. Cost of building generally differs by
the type of construction material used, the type of foundation, wall height
and location. The current building cost in Addis Ababa is 900-1200 Birr/ m2

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

for simple storage building and 1900-2300 Birr/ m2 for residential G+1
building (Ethiopian Investment Authority (EIA), 2006). A construction cost of
4,5000 Birr/m2 for the processing room and 3000 Birr/ m2 for other
facilities is considered taking into account the location, scale of the
processing plant, and rapid increase of construction materials happens
between 2006-2011.

Table 3-1 Area (m2) and construction

Description Area (m2)
Processing room 40
Cold room 12
Dehydration area 12
Storage 20
Office 12
Quality control room 6
Toilet and shower 12
Cafeteria 6
Parking and open area 130
Total Area ( m2 ) 250

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

IV. UTILITIES

Three basic utilities with sources are required for the operation of the
processing plant: potable water, electric power and energy source. Industrial
good manufacturing practices and daily consumptions of basic utilities
requires for the plant are analyzed in this section. The detail description is
given as follows

4.1 Water Consumption

Potable water is essential in all fruit processing plants. It is used as
ingredients, for washing down equipments and machineries, maintaining
workers hygiene, as cooling and heating medium and for fire fighting. An
adequate supply of potable water shall be available from taps in the
processing room. Potable water is drinking water that is wholesome, clean
and safe to drink. It is free from any microorganism, parasite and any
substance that in number and concentration constitutes a potential danger
to human health. Ethiopian standard ES 261:2001 specifies physical,
chemical and microbiological specification for the potable water. The total
daily water consumption for the processing plant was determined on the
basis of water required for cleaning of raw materials and sanitization of
processing plant and workers. Additional 10% of total usage is included as
safety factor.

4.1.1 Water consumption for raw material cleaning

Pineapple cleaning requires 2.5 L of water per kg of pineapple washed

(Carlos et al., 2005). From material balance, it was found that 1270 kg of
pineapple is washed daily. Therefore, the daily water consumption for raw
material cleaning

1237 kg/day x 2.5 L/kg 3092.5 l/day

4.1.2 Water consumption for processing plant hygiene

Equipment and workplace should be thoroughly cleaned after each day’s

production, using a cleaning routine. For cleaning of plant equipments,

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

machineries and work place it was considered 500 liter per day. About 50 %
of it is needed for washing, 20 % for sanitization and 30 % for rinsing
without the use of chlorine. The recommended chlorine concentration for
sanitization is 200 ppm (Andrade, 1996). Therefore, the sanitizer
consumption is determined as:

Active chlorine quantity = 0.2 x 1000 day x 200/1,000,000 kg/l 0.06 kg/day

In apart from this, 2 L water is considered to be consumed per bottle for

bottle cleaning, sterilization and jam cooling. From material balance it was
found that 726 jars are required to package daily production.

bottle cleaning, 726.00 jars / day 2 Lt/ jar 1452 l/day

Therefore, the total quantity of water consumption for processing plant

hygiene is 4544.5 L per day.

4.1.3 Water consumption for workers hygiene

There is a minimum recommended water volume per day per person for
sanitary purpose and comfort condition in workplace. In Ethiopia there is no
such regulation laid until now. For similarities in level of development
Brazilian experience was taken. Brazilian labor ministry regulations laid 60L/
day per person water as minimum water volume for sanitary purpose and
comfort condition in workplace (Carlos et al., 2005). The number of direct
labor in the processing plant is 10. Therefore the consumption is computed
as follows

Daily water requirement = 15 persons x 60 L/ day 900

4.1.4 Summary of daily water consumptions

Table 4-1 Summary of Water Consumptions ( Liters )

Raw materials preparations and cleaning 3092.5
Processing plant sanitation and hygiene 500
Jam bottles and jars cleaning and processing 1452
Workers hygiene and use 900
Total 5944.5
Contingency ( 20% ) 1188.9
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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

Grand Total ( Litters /day ) 7133.4

3
Therefore to be safe and grant continuity operation of plant 10 m Overhead
Tanker water storage and supply pipe and of .5 Lt/sec is recommended

4.2 Electricity Consumption

Electrical power required to run plant machineries, for illumination and
additional 10% of the total consumption to account for miscellaneous
consumptions was included in computing total daily electricity consumption
of the processing plant.

4.2.1. Electricity consumption for machinery

The daily electrical power required for running plant machineries is

calculated based on supplier’s data sheet for machinery power load (Table
4.23). The running hours are taken from activity chart Figure 4.11.

Table 4-2 Electricity daily consumptions of Machineries

Equipment Power Number of Running Electrical power

(KW) Machineries time ( hr ) (KWh)
Pulper 1.5 1 2 3
Slicer 1.8 1 2.9 5.22
Core sizer 0.75 1 2 1.5
Dryer fan 1.5 2 18 54
Heat sealer 0.2 2 2 0.8
Autoclave 1.5 1 2 3
Daily electricity consumption for machineries 67.52

4.2.2. Electricity required for illumination

Electricity provides illumination of workplace in food processing plants. The
efficiency of workers in the processing plant will be dependent on availability
of proper lightning. Calculations for the Electricity required for illumination
are based on the lumens method (Filho, 2002). It was recommended that
illumination intensity of 500 lux is required for raw material reception,
preparation, processing and packaging areas. In these areas ceilings and
walls will be painted with light colors but the floor would be constructed from
dark material. Wide lamps are used in continuous lines. Based on this
consideration it was established the light ratio /m2 which is 0.18 KWh/ day

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

m2 is required for this areas (Filho, 2002). The total area for the processing
room is 40 m2. Hence daily electricity consumption due to illumination of
processing area is computed as:

Electricity consumption in processing area

E 1 =0.18 KWh/day m2 * 40m2 =7.2 KWh/day

For the storage areas, ingredient, packaging materials and final products, it
was considered the need for 3 incandescent lamps 60W each. Hence the
daily electricity consumption (E2) for one operational hour (E2) is computed
as
E2 = 3 X 0.06 KW X 1Hr/day = 0.18KWh/day

The managing area includes two toilets restaurant, office and quality control
room. It was considered the need for 5 incandescent lamps 60W each.
Therefore daily electricity consumption (E3) for one operational hour in
toilets and 6 operational hours for the other rooms would be 1.56KWh/day.
Therefore the total daily electricity consumption for plant illumination (ET)
would be:
ET = 7.2 + 1.56 + 0.18 = 8.94 KWh/day
4.2.3 Summary of daily water consumptions

The total daily electricity consumption for the processing plant is computed
by summing the daily consumption for plant machinery, illumination and
10% of the total value as safety margin. The computed total daily electricity
consumption of the processing plant is 84.0 KWh/day. From this total energy
54 KWh/day is required for pineapple drying while 13.52 KWh/day is utilized
for pineapple jam production.

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 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design
Pineapple Corer and Seizer
For removing edible portion of fruit remaining on
the peels after coring & sizing The pineapples are
fed manually in the feed tray with fruit side up,
which are picked up by a spiked rotating drum.
There are steel knives that are used for deep
cutting. Thereafter, the pineapples move to v-
shaped stripping knives, which can be adjusted
as per requisite cutting depth. These v-shaped
knifes separate fruit chunks and pieces. The
bottom of v-shaped knifes strips the fruit. After
that, the peels pass over a grating which
dislodges them from from the spikes. Features
Capacity: Peels of up to 2000 pineapple per hour
Electric Power: 1 HP ( 0.75 KW
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Mini pulpers
Mini pulpers are widely used to
extract pulps and juices from
different fruits and vegetables..
The contact parts of the pulper
to fruit are made of stainless
steel. It is powered by 1 HP
single phase motor. It can
process about 50-100 kg per
hour. Its easy operations and
maintenance requires no skilled
labor to operate. It can be easily
dismantled for cleaning after
operation and quickly re-
assembled
 Pineapple Processing Plant System Design

PINEAPPLE SLICER Steam Jacketed Kettle

The nicely sized pineapples are Steam is produced in the space between
placed in the freed tray of the slicer. the outer jacket and inner pan to get
There are shearing knives that slices more uniform heating and avoid
pineapples into 12 mm thick localized burning of the product.
(approx.) slices in a single operation.
The equipment should be fabricated
The slice thickness can be
from stainless steel because it is
customized as per the customer resistant to the action of fruit pulp.
requirements. The slices are then
collected in a removable collection Steam Jacketted Kettle
tray. Features Capacity: 225 liters,

Capacity: up to 2000 pineapple

cylinders per hour
Electric Power: 1 HP (0.75 KW)

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