Nano-fluid thermal processing of watermelon juice in a shell and tube heat exchanger and evaluating its qualitative properties

Abstract

Abstract Due to specific thermophysical properties of nanofluids, compared with conventional thermal fluids (steam and hot water), their application in diverse industries, to improve heat transfer and to save energy, has increased. One important aspect of applying nanofluid thermal processing is shortening the process time which could have high potentials in the food industry since nutritional and bioactive components would be maintained much higher than common thermal processes. In this project, possibility of replacing water with alumina-water nanofluids (2 and 4% concentrations) during high temperature short time processing (75, 80 and 85 °C for 15, 30 and 45 s) of watermelon juice in a shell and tube exchanger regarding its qualitative properties (lycopene, vitamin C, color, pH and TSS) was investigated. Reduction in process time when applying 2 and 4% nanofluids, up to 24.88 and 51.63%, had considerable effects on maintaining qualitative properties for watermelon juices. For instance, thermal processing by 0, 2 and 4% nanofluids at 75 °C for 15 s could keep 81.15, 84.81 and 91.28% of lycopene and 61.11, 63.70 and 67.04% of vitamin C, respectively. pH and TSS indices of processed watermelon juices were in the range of 5.58–5.82 and 9.0–9.4, respectively, showing no considerable correlation with the heating media used in thermal processing. Our results revealed that nutritional and physicochemical properties of watermelon juice processed with alumina nanofluids were better than common thermal processing by water with 9.89, 6.18 and 50.38% higher lycopene, vitamin C and color retention in the final product, respectively. Industrial Relevance Even so thermal processes are effective in preventing microbial spoilage of fruit juices, high volume of energy transfer in long durations into food products with heat sensible ingredients or properties results in biochemical and nutritional losses, development of unpleasant reactions, changes in overall quality of food products, and high energy consumption. Nowadays, consumers demand for food products with long shelf lives, high quality and proper prices are increasing. So, to meet these demands, food industries are looking for alternative thermal technologies to reduce losses in food characteristics and process costs, and introduce a fresh, nutritious, healthy and affordable food produce. Thermal conductivity of conventional fluids is much lower than metals and oxidized metals. For example, thermal conductivities of copper and alumina are 700 and 60 times higher than the thermal conductivity of water, respectively. Accordingly, fluids with suspended particles of metals or oxidized metals benefit from better heat transfer properties. The term of Nanofluid refers to each stable two-phase compound that includes both base fluids and nanoparticles (lower than 100 nm, at least in one dimension). There is no research dealing with effects of adding nanoparticles to conventional thermal fluids for fruit juices processing. So, the goal of this research was to introduce nanofluid technology for thermal processing of food products for the first time, increasing heat transfer efficiency in shell and tube exchangers by nanofluids and frugality in energy consumption for pasteurization, reducing thermal processing duration and better quality retention of food products.