Starch Settling Recovery System with Classifier
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current starch recovery systems for potato processors are complex, energy-intensive, and costly due to the need for extensive piping, tanks, valves, and control equipment, and often require screening, vacuum filters, and dryers, which increase operational and capital expenses.
Innovation Solution
A starch recovery system utilizing a classifier and a settling tank to concentrate and separate starch from dilute aqueous slurry, eliminating the need for screening, vacuum filters, and dryers, and achieving starch cake production with a mechanically simpler and less labor-intensive process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current state of the art systems (screener, hydrocyclones, vacuum filter, flash dryer) are used to recover starch, then starch recovery is achieved, but device complexity and capital cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates unnecessary processing steps from the traditional starch recovery system. By removing the screener, vacuum filter, and flash dryer components, the system achieves starch recovery through essential functions only: classification and settling. This extraction of non-essential elements reduces device complexity while maintaining recovery effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The settling tank operates on self-service principles where starch particles naturally settle based on density differences without requiring external mechanical intervention. The system uses gravity and density-based separation instead of energy-intensive vacuum filters and flash dryers, allowing the process to serve itself through natural physical phenomena rather than complex mechanical systems.
2Quantity of substance
If traditional starch recovery systems with multiple processing steps are used, then starch concentration is achieved, but energy consumption and operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces energy-intensive mechanical systems (vacuum filters, flash dryers) with passive gravity-based settling. Instead of using mechanical vacuum pressure and high-energy drying processes, the system allows starch particles to settle naturally in the tank based on density differences, dramatically reducing energy consumption while achieving the same concentration goal.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters from high-energy mechanical processing to low-energy gravitational settling. By operating at ambient conditions without vacuum pressure or high-temperature drying, the system achieves starch concentration through parameter changes that reduce energy intensity while maintaining effective separation.
3Reliability
If screening and vacuum filtration are used to separate starch, then separation efficiency is improved, but device complexity and maintenance requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and removes the screener and vacuum filter components from the system. By eliminating these complex mechanical separation devices, the system achieves separation through the simpler settling tank process, improving ease of operation while maintaining separation efficiency through density-based gravitational separation.
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
The system effectively recovers starch in a more economical and energy-efficient manner, reducing capital requirements and operational complexity while producing a high-concentration starch cake with lower moisture content, suitable for further drying or storage.
Implementation Method 1
pressurizing and flowing the water through a series of hydrocyclone separators to concentrate the starch
Implementation Method 2
feeding the concentrated slurry from the underflow exit of the classifier into a settling tank having at least one underflow exit and at least one overflow exit to produce an underflow layer of starch
Data Source
AI summary
This invention describes the equipment and a method to recover starch from a dilute starch stream produced by manufacturing facilities which process the starch-containing materials, such as potato and corn. The process comprises feeding a dilute aqueous slurry of less than about 5% by weight starch to a classifier to concentrate the slurry by a factor of at least 5 and produce a concentrated slurry, wherein the classifier has at least one overflow exit and at least one underflow exit; drawing off the overflow and underflow from the classifier; feeding the concentrated slurry from the underflow exit of the classifier into a settling tank having at least one underflow exit and at least one overflow exit to produce an underflow layer of starch with a concentration of at least 40% starch proximate to the underflow exit and an aqueous overflow with a concentration of less than about 5% by weight starch proximate to the overflow exit; drawing off the overflow from the tank; and opening a orifice at the underflow exit of the tank to allow the distal most fraction of the underflow to exit the tank.