Foods and beverages: apparatus – Subjecting food to an enclosed modified atmosphere – With sequential heating and cooling
Patent
1996-03-13
1997-08-05
Simone, Timothy F.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Subjecting food to an enclosed modified atmosphere
With sequential heating and cooling
99472, 99477, 99483, 422 26, 422307, A23B 700
Patent
active
056531630
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the treatment of hydrated biological materials, and more precisely to the field of the extraction of juices and flavors from various plant substrates such as fruits, vegetables or other leaves. It relates in particular to a plant in which there is no need to add exogenous water in order to heat or blanch said materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the Applicant's document FR-A-2 656 547 a continuous apparatus was provided for deaerating, heating, maintaining at temperature and cooling under vacuum solid organic materials. This plant chiefly comprises a heating chamber into which steam is injected at high temperature to produce the heating of the material to be treated. This heated material is subsequently transferred to a decompression chamber in which a pressure lower than 0.1 bar prevails and where the vaporization of the water present within the material to be treated takes place. A solid material is thus obtained which is lighter and suited to being treated either by pressurizing or by another means of conditioning. This plant gives full satisfaction but has the disadvantge of requiring the injection of exogenous steam in order to heat the material to be treated. This addition of steam entails a phenomenon of dilution of the material to be treated, which dilution must be compensated by an additional concentration stage. The need for a concentrating device makes the plant more complicated as a whole and reduces the economic advantage of this plant. Furthermore, the addition of exogenous steam is generally prohibited, especially in viticulture or for obtaining fruit juice known as "pure juice".
A plant relating more particularly to the treatment of perfumed and condimental plants requiring a number of extractions was proposed in document FR 2 638 333. This plant enables a number of extractions to be carried out on the same substrate with a single set of equipment, but has the disadvantage of operating noncontinuously, and above all, of requiring an exogenous steam source.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject of the invention relates to a plant of the type in question, not exhibiting the above disadvantages.
It concerns a plant for the continuous treatment of hydrated biological materials including: originating from the heating chamber and vaporizing a proportion of the water present in the materials, said decompression chamber being connected, respectively, to the heating chamber by a means capable of maintaining a pressure difference between the two chambers, and to a condenser which is in turn connected to a vacuum source, chamber; condensate and exudate originating from these means for vaporizing.
In other words, the invention consists of recovering the steam condensates and a proportion of the liquid exuding from the material when it is being heated in the heating chamber and then in heating and vaporizing this recovered liquid in order to return it in the form of steam into the heating chamber. Thus the steam used for the heating originates directly from the material and the use of external water which does not form part of the raw material is avoided.
In a practical embodiment the heating chamber includes at least one helical screw rotatable around a shaft and intended to propel the material forward, surrounded near the bottom by a perforated component such as a grid intended to collect the hot condensates and exudates as it is formed in order to deliver it into the means of recovery, said rotary shaft adopting the form of a pipe connected at its entry end to the means for delivering the exudate vapors, and pierced at the periphery with a plurality of orifices intended to inject the exudate vapors into the heating chamber in the vicinity of the materials which are traveling forward.
In other words, the material to be treated in the heating chamber is driven by an Archimedes' screw and the steam injected onto this material originates, on the one hand, from the periphery of the screw through a grid, and on the o
REFERENCES:
patent: 2692200 (1954-10-01), Olson
patent: 3131738 (1964-05-01), Hind
patent: 4147098 (1979-04-01), Witte
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