Development of Ginger Juice Crystallizer

Abstract

The performance of the developed ginger juice crystallizer was evaluated in terms of cooking recovery, cooking losses, cooking rate, electrical energy consumption, and fuel consumption. The machine has a body dimension of 64 cm x 108 cm with six major components namely: cooking basin, stirrer assembly, burner assembly, transmission assembly, electric motor prime mover, and machine support. The performance of ginger juice crystallizer was evaluated using 3.5 kg of newly extracted juice from fresh ginger mixed with 1.75 kg of brown sugar per cooking batch for three trials. The crystallizer was driven by a 0.5-hp electric motor with a rated speed of 1,773 rpm. The operating paddle and stirrer speed varied from 40.2-41.8 rpm, cooking temperature ranged from 93.76 - 118.12 0C, operating noise ranged from 80-82 decibels, and the consistency of ginger tea was 0.31mm. For 1.17 hours of cooking, the ginger juice crystallizer had an average cooking recovery of 95.25%; cooking losses of 4.75%; cooking rate of 4.50 kg/hr; electrical energy consumption of 0.048 kw-hr/kg; and fuel consumption of 0.39 kg/hr. Operating the ginger juice crystallizer is financially feasible with a return on investment of 278.0%, payback period of 87 days, and break-even point of 546 kg of ginger brew.