Progressive Freeze Concentration of Coconut Water: Effect of Circulation Flowrate and Circulation Time

Abstract

Progressive freeze concentration integrated with a coil crystallizer was applied to concentrate coconut water in order to increase its sugar content. In progressive freeze concentration system, only a single ice is formed as a layer on cooled surface. It is introduced as an alternative in compensating the disadvantages of conventional method of freeze concentration, called suspension freeze concentration. In this research, the efficiency of the progressive freeze concentration system was determined through effective partition constant (K) value and percent increment of sugar content. Hence, the effect of circulation flowrate ranging from 2000 to 2800 ml/min and circulation time from 10 to 18 minutes on those two variables was then investigated through experiments designated using one factor at a time. From the experimental work, it was found that higher efficiency results at higher circulation flowrate of 2800 ml/min based on lower K and high percentage of sugar increment achieved. It was also found that the percentage of the sugar increment is high when the period given for circulating the solution is increased and the most suitable circulation time is 14 minutes.