Heat Generation and its Impact on Lamp Fouling During Cheese Whey Sterilization using Ultraviolet Radiation

Abstract

In previous studies we found that lamp fouling was a major limitation when tubular ultraviolet reactors were used for sterilization of cheese whey over an extended period of time. Heat generation by ultraviolet lamps causes the temperature of the flowing fluid to rise and thus enhances fouling. In this study, the heat generated by a low pressure mercury ultraviolet lamp during continuous sterilization of cheese whey in three tubular reactors having different gap sizes (18, 13 and 6 mm) was calculated using a heat balance formula. The technique quantified the heat produced in and lost from each reactor. The heat balance calculations showed that lamp heat generation decreased with decreasing gap size (50.48, 47.71 and 31.91 kJ/h for 18, 13 and 6 mm gap sizes, respectively). However, the heat gain per unit volume and consequently the steady state temperature of the cheese whey effluent increased with decreasing gap size (91.79, 159.03 and 319.12 kJ/l and 44.5, 53.4 and 62.8 °C for 18, 13 and 6 mm gap sizes, respectively). A strong correlation between the amount of heat gain per unit volume and the amount of fouling material accumulated on the quartz surface was realized. The amount of accumulated fouling material increased with decreasing gap size (14.42, 15.31 and 25.26 g on wet basis for 18, 13 and 6 mm gap sizes, respectively). A new design in which the direct contact between the lamp and the flowing cheese whey is avoided and lamp cooling is introduced should be investigated.