See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/274161561

Engineering: Heat and Mass Balances Around Extruder Preconditioners II

Article in Cereal Foods World · July 2014

DOI: 10.1094/CFW-59-4-0214

CITATIONS READS

2 503

1 author:

Leon Levine
leon levine & associates
134 PUBLICATIONS 350 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Leon Levine on 02 August 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

r
Leon Levine
Leon Levine & Associates
Albuquerque, NM, US.A.
leon. levine@prodigy.net

Engineering: Heat and Mass Balances Around

Extruder Preconditioners II
In my previous column (Cereal Foods World, May-June 2014),
=::-egan a discussion of the heat and mass balances that describe
:ie performance of extruder preconditioners. The discussion
~oncluded with a calculation of the steam required to obtain a
specified moisture and temperature for the exiting product. The
calculations illustrated that the amount of steam used in the
preconditioner should not exceed ""10% of the weight of the raw
material being fed into the preconditioner. In this column I will
discuss some of the other factors in heat and mass balances.
One term that appears in the preconditioner heat balance is
the term accounting for heat losses, which may contribute to
scale-up issues. If we assume a preconditioner manufacturer
tends to scale up with geometric similarity (note, this may not
be true for all manufacturers), then the surface area of the pre-
conditioner tends to increase with the square of the diameter,
and the capacity tends increase with the cube of the diameter.
As a consequence, the area of heat transfer per unit of mass pro-
cessed is a lot larger for a small preconditioner than it is for a
larger preconditioner. This means the heat losses are dispropor-
tionally large for a small extruder. If we wish to produce a prod-
that the system has good separators in the steam lines. I recom-
mend that steam lines be traced, so condensation does not occur.
In my last column, I suggested that adding hot water would
result in higher temperatures or reduced steam requirements.
The effect of this addition is relatively small, however, because
the heat of vaporization is so large compared with the heat ca-
pacity of water. Using the previous example, Table III shows the
effect of water temperature when steam quality is 100%. Based
on the values in Table III, at most, we can replace ""20% of the
heat provided by the steam with heat from hot water.
Finally, in my previous column, I assumed that 25% of the
gelatinizable or denaturable material is gelatinized or denatured.
Increasing or decreasing the level of gelatinization or denatur- , _
ation between O and 50% would have a small effect (Table IV).
All of these heat and mass balance calculations can be reversed
to obtain the final temperature of the product at a fixed steam to
water ratio. I leave those calculations as an exercise for the reader.
Table I. Required masses of steam (m,) and water (mwl per mass of dry
solids at different flow rates

uct with the same moisture and temperature, then the required Flow Rate (kg/hr) m,
ratio of added steam to added water will change when the pre- 100 0.109 0.183
conditioner is scaled up. In other words, we cannot blindly run 1,000 0.105 0.187
the same steam and water rates on all scales and expect the same 10,000 0.103 0.190
results. The approximate steam and water rates required to reach
Table II. Effect of steam quality for a 100 kg/hr preconditioner with a
90°C and the same product moisture for preconditioners with
target temperature of 90°Ca
different capacities are illustrated below. I am using the same
assumptions that I used in the previous column for the condi- Steam Quality(%) m,
tions. The capacity of this preconditioner is assumed to be 100 kg 100 0.109 0.183
of dry material/hr. The required masses of steam (m5 ) and water 90 0.120 0.172
75 0.140 0.152
(mw) per mass of dry solids for different flow rates are shown
50 0.194 0.098
in Table I. As illustrated, the ratio of steam required to water
a m, = mass of steam; mw = mass of water.
decreases as the flow rate increases. Failure to make this adjust-
ment for larger preconditioners will result in a warmer product. Table III. Effect of water temperature for a 100 kg/hr preconditioner
Another very important item that appears in the heat balance with steam quality at 100%a
is the quality of the steam. All the calculations performed thus
Water Temperature (°C) m,
far assume that the quality of the steam is 100%. That is, it's
20 0.109 0.183
assumed that the steam being used is pure vapor with no sus-
50 0.100 0.192
pended condensate (water). However, it's been my experience 80 0.090 0.202
that this is not usually even close to the truth, especially in small
" m 5 = mass of steam; mw = mass of water.
preconditioners in which the surface area of the piping carrying
the steam is high compared with the flow rate of the steam. A Table IV. Effect of gelatinization or denaturation level (between Oand
lack of steam quality can have a dramatic effect on temperature. 50%) on the preconditioning process"
Table II illustrates the impact of steam quality for a 100 kg/hr % Gelatinization/Denaturation m,
preconditioner with a target temperature of 90°C.
0 0.108 0.184
Ultimately, poor quality steam can result in a much cooler, less 25 0.109 0.183
cooked product. To maximize steam quality, one should be sure 50 0.111 0.181
http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/CFW-59-4-0214 a m, = mass of steam; mw = mass of water.

214 / JULY-AUGUST 2014, VOL. 59, NO. 4

View publication stats