HRS focuses on products for juice processing
At the end of last year, HRS Heat Exchangers launched its I Series of products for de-packing and remelting frozen orange juice. However, the I Series is just the latest in a long line of equipment specifically designed for the production of high-quality fruit- and orange-juice, including conventional and ohmic pasteurisation technology.
The HRS I Series uses existing HRS heat exchanger technologies (including HRS DTA Double Tube and HRS MI Multitube heat exchangers) together with an ice crusher to re-melt both large and small chunks of ice, providing optimal rates of heat transfer and energy efficiency.
The HRS I Series consists of two elements, the IC Series which de-packs and crushes frozen products from lined 200-litre drums, and the IM series which melts the frozen product. The IC Series features a roller conveyor which feeds individual drums into a tipper that empties them into the crusher. Here, a specially designed spiked roller crushes the solid ice into an icy slush, which is then transferred to the IM Series re-melting device which raises the temperature of the juice from frozen to around 4°C in 90 seconds. From here, the cold liquid juice can be pumped to a holding tank, or straight into the next process step.
The next step is usually pasteurisation of the juice, with High Temperature Short Time (HTST) pasteurisation (flash pasteurisation) being the preferred technique for premium quality juice. The HRS series of MI/MR pasteurisers uses a food-grade, multi-tube corrugated tube heat exchanger to speed up the heat transfer, while the corrugated tubes create extra turbulence in the juice as it flows through.
However, there is also increasing interest in new novel pasteurisation techniques, such as ohmic heating, which uses electricity to heat the product rapidly and uniformly, has been scientifically shown to be highly effective at inactivating bacteria, yeast and moulds while maintaining the flavours and quality of fruit juice.
The ohmic system works by passing electricity between two electrodes in the product in a 1 m ceramic tube, so the electricity must pass through the product. The result is that the juice is heated up to 105°C within one second. It is then held at this temperature for four seconds before being cooled. Ohmic technology itself is not new, but this system uses the latest electronics to ensure that the temperature curve is exceptionally smooth, which not only helps to preserve product quality but also improves process efficiency.
Last year, HRS supplied an ohmic pasteurisation system to a juice manufacturer in Mexico. The system is capable of treating 18,000 litres (18 tonnes) of juice each hour, and once pasteurised, the juice is rapidly cooled using an HRS MI Series stainless steel shell and tube heat exchanger. The product is initially cooled by water, with the recovered energy being used elsewhere in the process, while a final cooling phase with glycol achieves a final product temperature of 2–4°C.
As well as systems for handling frozen concentrate and pasteurising juice, HRS also provides a range of equipment for other aspects of fruit juice production, including storage tanks (from 2500 to 50,000 litres made to client’s bespoke specifications), pumps and aseptic fillers. The HRS BP Series is a purpose-designed, reciprocating, positive-displacement pump for sanitary food applications. In addition, the HRS AF Series Aseptic Filler is designed with one or two automatic filling heads to fill a range of bulk packs between 200 and 1400 litres.
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