Design of a plant for extraction and purification of pectin

Abstract

Pectin is a natural substance found in the tissue of fruits and vegetables. Because of its great water absorbing capabilities, it presents gelling, stabilizing and thickening properties. Pectin is widely used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The purpose of this project is to design a plant for the production of pectin, operating in batch. Generally, the raw materials used are vegetable residues of juice factories, and, for this work waste of apple, peach, orange and lemon have been selected as raw materials. The plant to be designed should have a production capability of 6 t/year of pectin. The production process of pectin consists basically in a prior selection and washing of raw material; solid-liquid extraction (at 70°C and in acid medium) to solubilize pectin; and filtering of solid waste; precipitation of pectin by addition of ethanol; solid-liquid separation of the precipitated pectin; and, finally, drying and milling and proceeds to final conditioning. The units that are designed for the process are: opened stirred and jacketed tank for extraction, filter press to separate solid waste, closed stirred and jacketed tank for precipitation of pectin, basket centrifuge for solid pectin separation, and tray dryer to remove the humidity (alcohol and water).