Soybean Slurry Deaeration and Heating for Bubble Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for producing soy milk face challenges in removing air bubbles during the heating process, which leads to inefficient use of heating equipment, hindered heat transfer, and increased manufacturing costs due to the need for antifoaming agents, especially in continuous heating systems where deaeration of dissolved gases is difficult without these agents.
Innovation Solution
A method involving an immersion process in warm water, followed by crushing with warm water to create a heated slurry, and a deaeration process at temperatures of 40°C or higher to remove air bubbles before heating, without using antifoaming agents, along with an optional enzyme deactivation step and heat retention or gradual heating, to suppress bubble generation and enhance deaeration efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-generated harmful factors
If antifoaming agents are added to suppress bubble generation during heating, then bubble suppression is improved, but product purity and health safety deteriorate due to food additives
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing deaeration before the heating process. The slurry is deaerated at 40°C or higher before entering the heating stage, which removes dissolved gases and prevents bubble generation during subsequent heating. This eliminates the need for antifoaming agents during heating, resolving the contradiction between bubble suppression and product purity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the temperature parameter to enable deaeration. By maintaining the slurry at 40°C or higher during deaeration, the solubility of gases decreases, allowing dissolved gases to be removed. This parameter change enables effective deaeration without requiring chemical additives, thus maintaining product purity while preventing bubble issues during heating.
2Productivity
If heating is performed immediately after crushing without deaeration, then process efficiency is improved, but heat transfer uniformity deteriorates due to air bubbles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs deaeration as a preliminary action between crushing and heating. The slurry is deaerated at 40°C or higher to remove air bubbles before heating begins. This preliminary deaeration ensures uniform heat transfer during subsequent heating processes, resolving the contradiction between process efficiency and heat transfer uniformity.
3Use of energy by moving object
If deaeration is performed at low temperature, then energy consumption is reduced, but deaeration effectiveness deteriorates due to dissolved gases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the temperature parameter for deaeration by setting it at 40°C or higher. This temperature is sufficiently high to reduce gas solubility and enable effective deaeration of the slurry, yet not excessively high to cause unnecessary energy consumption. This parameter optimization resolves the contradiction between energy consumption and deaeration effectiveness.
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
This method effectively deaerates soybean slurry without antifoaming agents, ensuring uniform heating and reducing production costs by minimizing the need for special boiling means and antifoaming agents, while maintaining product quality.
Implementation Method 1
a deaeration process of deaerating the secondary slurry having a temperature of 40° C. or higher, which is conveyed after the crushing process
Implementation Method 2
a heating process of heating the deaerated secondary slurry to obtain heated slurry
Implementation Method 3
the soybean slurry is boiled by heating to extract water-soluble proteins in the soybean slurry and promote heat denaturation of proteins
Data Source
AI summary
A squeezing device includes: a crushing device that crushes primary soybean slurry obtained by mixing pulverized soybeans and warm water together with warm water to obtain secondary soybean slurry in a heated state; a deaeration device that deaerates the secondary slurry having a temperature of 40° C. or higher, which is conveyed without heating from the crushing device; a heating device that heats deaerated secondary slurry to obtain heated slurry; and a solid-liquid separation device that solid-liquid separates the heated slurry.