Pasteurizer Heat Exchanger Layout for Gentle Colostrum Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pasteurization systems for animal feed, particularly colostrum, face challenges in rapid and gentle heating and cooling, as they often result in the destruction of valuable components and clogging due to temperature-induced thickening and film-like deposits.
Innovation Solution
A pasteurization system featuring a cylindrical heat exchanger with a cooling coil that almost completely passes through its height, designed to facilitate gentle cooling and preheating, using a coil spring shape for maximum heat exchange surface and tangential water flow for enhanced efficiency, along with a preheating coil for efficient temperature control and energy recovery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the liquid animal feed is heated slowly to pasteurization temperature, then the risk of destroying valuable milk components is reduced, but the pasteurization process takes longer time and allows more pathogen growth risk
Solution Approach 1:
The heating process is divided into two distinct stages: a rapid initial heating phase from refrigeration temperature to pasteurization temperature, followed by a controlled holding phase. This segmentation allows the system to achieve pasteurization quickly while maintaining component quality through the subsequent gentle cooling phase.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes temperature parameters throughout the process - using high initial heating rates to reach pasteurization temperature quickly, then maintaining precise temperature control during the holding phase, and finally applying controlled cooling. This parameter optimization resolves the contradiction between speed and quality preservation.
2Productivity
If the liquid animal feed is cooled rapidly after pasteurization, then the process efficiency is improved, but valuable milk components may be destroyed and the product quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling process is segmented into phases with different cooling rates. After pasteurization, the system applies controlled cooling that is rapid enough to maintain productivity but gentle enough to preserve milk components, avoiding the extremes of both rapid and slow cooling.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous temperature control throughout the cooling phase, ensuring that the cooling action is optimized at each moment to balance speed and component preservation, rather than using a single fixed cooling rate.
3Reliability
If colostrum is heated to pasteurization temperature, then pathogenic germs are eliminated, but the colostrum thickens like pudding at around 60°C and clogs the pipeline
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies a preliminary rapid heating phase that quickly brings the colostrum through the critical 60°C thickening zone before viscosity changes can cause clogging. By anticipating the thickening problem and acting beforehand with rapid heating, the system eliminates germs effectively while avoiding pipeline blockages.
4Productivity
If a conventional heat exchanger is used for cooling, then the structure is simple, but the heat exchange surface is insufficient and cooling efficiency is low
Solution Approach 1:
The heat exchanger employs a nested coil structure where one heat exchange coil is positioned inside another, creating multiple heat exchange surfaces within a compact volume. This nested arrangement dramatically increases the effective heat exchange area without proportionally increasing the external dimensions, thereby improving cooling efficiency while controlling structural complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Ensures rapid, gentle heating and cooling of animal feed, preventing component destruction and clogging, while achieving efficient energy recovery and flexible operation for both pasteurization and preheating processes.
Implementation Method 1
the cooling unit is designed as a heat exchanger, the height of which is a multiple of its largest cross-sectional extent, in the interior of which a pipeline is provided as a cooling coil
Implementation Method 2
heat exchange takes place, namely in one line flows Water to the throat and in the other line the milk to be cooled
Implementation Method 3
the inlet connection such that the cold water flows tangentially into the heat exchanger. This gives the water content of the heat exchanger a certain twist to accelerate the heat exchange between water and milk
Implementation Method 4
a preheating coil for efficient temperature control and energy recovery
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
Disclosed is a system for pasteurizing animal food, comprising a pasteurizing unit and a cooling unit that is designed as a heat exchanger (3 or 3'). The height (H) of the heat exchanger (3 or 3') is a multiple of the maximum width (D) thereof. A pipe is provided inside the heat exchanger (3 or 3') as a cooling serpentine (6) which extends nearly along the entire height (H) of the heat exchanger (3 or 3').