Scale-Up of Flat Bladed Mixer in Orange Juice Concentrate Process (original) (raw)

2015, American Journal of Energy Engineering

Mixing of orange concentrates to be homogenized was investigated using flat-bladed impeller. The rheological properties of orange juice concentrate were studied over the range 10-70°C, solid concentration 66 wt% and speed of spindle 50-250 rpm. Shear stress-shear rate data indicate that the concentrate behaves as non-Newtonian pesudoplastic fluid. Geometry was studied by varying the impeller to a column diameter. An impeller mixer was connected to an ammeter in order to predict the power of the mixer. The relation between a power number, blend number, pumping number and Reynolds's number were calculated at different D/T. Scale-up of the mixing process from the laboratory to the production plant scale was carried out utilizing the aforementioned correlations.