TOPIC 1

Introduction to agricultural
processing
Fundamental Concepts
 Process
Set of activities or industrial operations that modify the
Process properties of raw materials with the purpose of obtaining
products to satisfy the needs of a society.

Such modifications of natural raw materials are directed to

obtain products with greater acceptance in the market, or
with better possibilities of storage and transport
 Agricultural Processing
Definition: Purpose:

• Any processing activity that • To provide greater yield from

maintains or raises the quality a raw farm product by
or changes the form or increasing the amount of
characteristics of a farm finished product, the number
product of products, or both.
• To improve the net economic
value of a product by raising
its quality or the yield or by
decreasing the cost of
production.
 Flow Charts of Agricultural Materials
Processes

Extraction of olive oil

Elaboration of soluble coffee

Production of fruit
concentrated juices
 Steady and Unsteady States
Steady State Unsteady States

• All the physical variables • When the characteristic

remain constant and intensive variables of the
invariable along time, at any operation vary through the
point of the system; system at a given moment
however, they may be and the variables
different from one point to corresponding to each
another system’s point vary along
time

*physical variables: mechanical or thermodynamic

*mechanical: volume, velocity, etc.
*thermodynamic: viscosity, concentration, temperature, pressure, etc.
 Discontinuous, Continuous and
Semicontinuous Operations
Discontinuous Continuous Semicontinuous

• The raw material is loaded in
the equipment; after
performing the required
transformation, the obtained
products are unloaded
• Also called “batch” or
“intermittent” operations
• The loading, transformation • May occur by loading some
and unloading stages are materials in the equipment
performed simultaneously. that will remain there for a
• Equipment cleaning is given time in a discontinuous
carried out every given time, way, while other materials
depending on the nature of enter or exit continuously.
the process and the
materials used.
• To carry out the cleaning,
production must be stopped.

*when selecting a form of operation, the advantages and disadvantages of each type
should be considered.
*when low productions are required, it is recommended to work under discontinuous
conditions.
*when high productions are required, it is more profitable to operate in a continuous way.
UNIT OPERATIONS:

CLASSIFICATION
Types of ________ stages: grinding, sieving, mixture,
unit fluidization, sedimentation, flotation, filtration,
operations rectification, absorption, extraction, adsorption,
heat exchange, evaporation, drying, etc.

_________stages: refining, chemical peeling

____________ stages: Fermentation,

sterilization, pasteurization, enzymatic peeling
Absorption (a) vs Adsorption (b)
aBsorption –

aDsorption-
Watch this: http://youtu.be/djIzXvwIz5U
Classification of unit operations
Mass transfer
Heat transfer
Momentum transfer
Simultaneous Mass-Heat Transfer
Complementary
 Mass Transfer Unit Operations
These operations are controlled by the diffusion of a component within a mixture.
Some of the operations included in this group are:

Distillation
Absorption
Extraction
Adsorption
Ionic exchange
 Heat Transfer Unit Operations
These operations are controlled by temperature gradients. They depend on the
mechanism by which heat is transferred:

Conduction
Convection
Radiation
 Momentum Transfer Unit Operations
These operations study the processes in which two phases at different velocities are in
contact. The operations included in this section are generally divided into three groups:

_____________________________:
study of the movement of fluids through the interior of the tubing; also includes the study of
equipment used to impel the fluids (pumps, compressors, blowers and fans) and the
mechanisms used to measure the properties of fluids (diaphragms, venturi meters,
rotameters, etc.)

____________________________________________:
the fluids circulates through the external part of a solid. This circulation includes the flow of
fluids through porous fixed beds, fluidized beds (fluidization), and pneumatic transport.

_________________________________________________:
The base for separation of solids with-in a fluid. This type of separation includes:
sedimentation, filtration, and ultrafiltration, among others.
Simultaneous Mass-Heat Transfer Unit
Operations
In this operations a concentration and a
temperature gradient exist at the same time:

Humidification and
dehumidification

Crystallization

Dehydration
SPECIFIC PROPERTIES
Specific Density =
properties

Concentration: a measure of the amount of substance

contained in a unit volume.
e.g.: a food containing 20% fat will contain 20 g of fat in
every 100 g of food.

Moisture content:
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟
MCwb = ; MCdb =
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑠
Specific 𝑑𝐹
Pressure (N/m²) = 𝑑𝐴
properties

Enthalpy:
H = Ei + PV
Enthalpy per unit mass:
H’ = E’i + PV’

Perfect gas law:

PV’=
MASS AND ENERGY BALANCES
• In general way, the expression of the mass,
energy, and momentum balances related to
the unit time can be expressed as:

Property Property Property

entering the exiting the that
system system accumulates

• In a schematic way:

E S A
• In cases where a chemical reaction exists,
when carrying out a balance for a component,
an additional generation term may appear. In
these cases the balance expression will be:

E G S A
It is based on the principle of conservation of
mass, ie.

Matter cannot be created or destroyed. It can

only be converted from one form to another

Means;
That any matter or energy entering a system must
be equal to the sum of the matter leaving and the
matter remaining in the system
• Example: the pasteurizing process for milk, in
which milk is pumped through a heat exchanger
and is first heated and then cooled. Balance heat
equation:

Heat energy leaving in milk =

_______________________+
Heat energy added by pump +
_______________________-
Heat energy taken out in cooling section -
_________________________________
• Example 1:

Solution:
Basis: 100 kg of skim milk. This contains, therefore, 0.1 kg of fat

Let the fat which was Total original fat = (x + 0.1) kg

removed from it to make Total original mass = (x + 100) kg
skim milk be x kg

As it is known that the 𝑥 + 0.1

= 0.045
original fat content was 100 + 𝑥
4.5%, so
hence x + 0.1 = 0.045(100 + x)
x = 4.6 kg
So, the composition of the whole milk is then:
Fat = 4.5%
Water = 90.5/104.6 = 86.5%
Protein = 3.5/104.6 = 3.3%
Carbohydrate = 5.1/104.6 = 4.9%
Ash = 0.8%

Total composition: water 86.5%, carbohydrate 4.9%, fat 4.5%,

protein 3.3%, ash 0.8%
• Example 2:

Solution:
 In:

Out: Skim milk Cream milk

0.45% fat 45% fat

Mass out:
Let the mass of cream be x kg then its total fat content is 0.45x.
The mass of skim milk is (5833-x) and its total fat content is 0.0045(5833-x).

Mass of cream
Materials balance on fat:

Fat in = Fat out

5833*0.04 = 0.0045(5833-x) + 0.45x

And so x = 465kg

So that the flow of cream is 465 kg h-1 and skim milk (5833-465) = 5368 kgh-1
 Energy Balance
Total Total Change in
energy energy the total
entering leaving energy of
the system the system the system

or

Ein Eout ΔEsystem

• According to the first law of thermodynamics, the
total change in energy of a closed system is equal to
the heat added to the system minus the work done
by the system.

• Mathematically:

ΔE Q W
Composed of:
internal thermal energy, Ei
Kinetic energy, EKE
Potential energy, EPE
• After derivation of the main equation,

H2 H1 Q
or

ΔH Q
*H = enthalpy
*ΔH = change in enthalpy = heat content
 • If the heating process involves an increase in
temperature from T1 to T2, then:
𝑇2
ΔH = H2 – H1 = Q = m ‫𝑇𝑑𝑃𝑐 𝑇׬‬
1

or

ΔH = mcP(T2-T1)
*CP = heat capacity (J/[kg °C], m = mass, T = temperature, 1 and 2 are initial and final values
 Involves the change in
• Energy balance for an open system: the energy of the system
due to mass flow
𝑚𝑢2
E = Ei + + mgz + PV Properties
2 do not
change with time
• Energy balance for steady flow system:

𝐸ሶ in = 𝐸ሶ out = Δ𝐸ሶ system = 0

Therefore:

𝐸ሶ in = 𝐸ሶ out
• Total energy balance:

𝑢2 2 𝑃2 𝑢1 2 𝑃1
Qm = + 𝑔𝑧2 + − + 𝑔𝑧1 + + (𝐸′𝑖,2 -𝐸′𝑖,1) +Wm
2 𝜌2 2 𝜌1

* Qm : transfer of heat per unit mass

* Wm :transfer of work per unit mass
1
* V’ = : specific volume
𝜌
* P = inlet streams
* E’ = internal energy per unit mass
• Example:
A tubular water blancher is being used to process lima beans
(Fig. 1). The product mass flow rate is 860 kg/h. It is found that
the theoretical energy consumed for the blanching process
amounts to 1.19 GJ/h. The energy lost due to lack of insulation
around the blancher is estimated to be 0.24 GJ/h.
Energy losses from
surface = 0.24 GJ/h

Energy leaving with

product = 1.19 GJ/h
Water blancher
Energy input = Energy leaving with
2.71 GJ/h water
??

Fig. 1
If the total energy input to the blancher is 2.71 GJ/h,
a. Calculate the energy required to reheat water.
b. Determine the percent energy associated with each stream.

Solution:
Given:
Product mass flow rate = 860 kg/h
Theoretical energy required by product = 1.19 GJ/h
Energy lost due to lack of insulation = 0.24 GJ/h
Energy input to the blancher = 2.71 GJ/h
Approach:
We will first write an energy balance and then solve for the
unknowns

1. Select 1h as a basis
2. Energy balance may be written as follows:

Energy input to blancher = energy out with product + energy loss due to lack
of insulation + energy out with water

3. Substituting appropriate values in the energy balance,

Thus the blancher requires 2.71-1.28=1.43 GJ/h to both reheat
water and maintain it at conditions necessary to accomplish the
blanching process.

4. These values can be converted to percentage of total thermal

input as follows:
Energy out with product =
Energy loss due to lack of insulation =
Energy out with water =

5. The results indicate that this water blancher operates at about

________% thermal energy efficiency.
 Fluidization
• Fluidization (or fluidisation) is a process
similar to liquefaction whereby a granular
material is converted from a static solid-like
state to a dynamic fluid-like state. This process
occurs when a fluid (liquid or gas) is passed up
through the granular material.