Modelling of a falling film evaporator for dairy processes

Abstract

The modelling of dairy processing using commercial process simulator lags behind chemical and petrochemical process simulation. This is due to fact that most commercial process simulators do not contain food (e.g. milk) components in their component libraries, required for dairy process simulation. Recently, a “pseudo” milk containing hypothetical components (e.g. milk fat) was developed in a commercial process simulator for milk process simulation (Zhang et al. 2014). In this work, “pseudo” milk was used to model a falling film evaporator used in a milk powder production plant. It shows that commercial process simulators have capability to simulate dairy processes. The model results were validated using both literature and industry data. The model results showed around 0.1 – 9.4% differences between simulated and actual results. This work extends the capabilities of commercial process simulators and can also help practicing engineers to understand potential process improvements.