Modeling the Process of Heat Treatment of Liquid Products in a Plate Heat Exchanger Using an Integrated Energy-Substituting Installation

Abstract

Introduction. Currently, the issue of reducing electrical energy consumption in the technologies of processing agricultural products, in particular, milk is topical. In large part, these costs are associated with the implementation of heat treatment processes. The reduction of electrical energy consumption can be achieved in several ways, one of which is the development and application of solar-powered installations. In this case, the consumption of traditional electrical energy is significantly reduced, but the manufactures have the task of coordinating the installation parameters and the real production conditions of enterprises. Materials and Methods. The study examined energy consumption in milk processing technologies, plate heat exchanger operation modes and heliocollector performance indicators. The heating temperature of the coolant and the product was determined with an instrument complex that allows registering the temperature values in 8 different control points and transmitting the received signals to the personal computer hard disk. The method for defining the parameters of the plant for preparing the coolant in the technologies of milk processing with the use of a complex energy-substituting unit is proposed. The new technique provides a reduction of electric energy consumption from 30 to 70%. Results. The consumption of electrical energy for thermal processes can be reduced by using solar energy. To solve the problem of optimizing the ratio of product consumption, heating area in the heat exchanger, the area of the solar collectors of the energy-substituting installation, it is recommended to use the obtained graphical dependencies and the formula for determining the area of the solar collectors. Discussion and Conclusion. It is possible to determinate the area of solar collectors of complex energy-substituting installation for real production conditions through using the obtained analytical dependence taking into account the dependence the specified parameter on a temperature mode of heating, the area of a surface of heating in the heat exchanger, and weight of milk being processed per unit of time. The obtained graphical dependencies make it possible to determine the product consumption and heating area for the given heating temperature values.