Abstract

LOPEZ-ZAMORA, L.; CADEZA-MERINO, O.J.; MARTINEZ-MARTINEZ, K.  and  BOLANOS-REYNOSO, E.. Preliminar study of the vacuum pressure and steam effect on a batch cristalizer at pilot plant level. Rev. Mex. Ing. Quím [online]. 2008, vol.7, n.1, pp.65-70. ISSN 1665-2738.

The study of the effect that produce the vacuum pressure as the steam pressure over the formed crystal mass and the distribution of the crystal size in the vacuum batch crystallization process, is of great importance for the sugar industry, which require to increase its efficiency, applying already tested conditions at pilot plant level. In this paper it's been studied the effect of the implementation of the maximum displacement of the vacuum pump profile, obtaining a 56.39% of performance against the obtained results in the crystallization by cooling off. It's been tested also, different steam pressures in the jacket, observing that applying a steam pressure of 0.15 kg/cm², at a saturated solution in 35°C, it can be obtained a formed crystal mass 39% of performance against the obtained results in the crystallization by cooling off, with a average crystal diameter of 414.1153μm, a standard deviation of 51.5629μm, average evaporated flow was 13.1619 ml/min, On the basis of the obtained results it can be concluded that, the implementation of the vacuum profiles improves and the diminishing of the steam pressure, in combination with the warming time, improves considerably the crystallization process.

Keywords : vacuum pressure; steam pressure; crystallization.