Clathrate hydrate based approach for concentration of sugar aqueous solution, orange juice, and tomato juice: Phase equilibrium modeling using a thermodynamic framework

Abstract

Utilization of hydrate formation appears to be an efficient technology to facilitate concentration process of various juices in the food industry. This research work examines a thermodynamic approach to simulate the concentration operation of sugar solutions in terms of process feasibility and effectiveness. To attain this objective, the previously presented semi-theoretical framework for exploring the inhibition effects of various salts and alcohols (thermodynamic inhibitors) on the equilibrium stability conditions of methane hydrates was extended to forecast the methane/carbon dioxide hydrate dissociation temperature in the presence of sugar aqueous solutions, orange juice, and tomato juice. The experimental liquid-hydrate-vapor (L-H-V) three-phase equilibrium data of CH4+xylose/xylitol + water and CO2+sucrose/fructose + water systems were gathered from the literature. A new empirical correlation capable of estimating the incipient stability curve of the carbon dioxide hydrate in pure water was developed using the real data reported in the time interval of 1946–2017. Furthermore, the phase equilibria conditions of CO2 hydrate in orange juice and tomato juice were modelled. For all the studied methane and carbon dioxide hydrate systems, the proposed approach reproduces the experimental data with absolute deviations around 0.3 and 0.2 K, respectively, within the temperature, pressure, and solution concentration ranges of the collected data. For CO2+orange and tomato juice hydrate systems, the absolute errors were found to be 0.17 and 0.06, respectively. This research work has potentials to design and operate an efficient-energy strategy for concentrating different types of sugar solutions in the food industry.