Behaviour of Ice Crystal Growth in a Vertical Finned Cylindrical Freeze Concentrator

Abstract

Behaviours of ice crystal growth at two different operating parameters namely coolant temperature and circulation time were investigated for progressive freeze concentration (PFC) of glucose solution through a vertical finned crystallizer (VFC). Two determinant parameters which are ice production rate (mu), and water recovery (WR) were used to illustrate the behaviours of ice crystal growth in this study. From the result, higher ice production rate (mu) and water recovery (WR) were achieved at lower coolant temperature. On the other hand, longer circulation time resulted in lower ice production rate (mu), but at the same time increased the water recovery (WR). The maximum ice production rate (mu) and water recovery (WR) attained through this study were 1.522 gm-2s-1 and 51.131 %, respectively.