Equipment Design for Prekese Functional Fruit Drink Processing

The need to design process equipment to produce Tetrapleura tetraptera (prekese) functional fruit drink is necessary in order to meet the needs expressed by customers. These equipment were carefully selected and designed to suit the task each is expected to perform at their various stage functions. The major areas of a process plant needed to produce prekese functional fruit drink have been identified along the production line as fruit preparation, milling, extraction, filtration, evaporation and mixing. The extraction and evaporation unit operations are crucial for obtaining the prekese extract with retained active ingredients needed in the functional fruit drink. This study successfully designed the various equipment needed for the production of prekese functional fruit drink. The equipment design was based on laboratory scale results of producing Prekese functional fruit drink which was operated in a batch mode. The equipment comprised a washer, a cutter, a miller, an extractor, a filter, an evaporator, and a mixer. The equipment were sized and engineering drawings were prepared. Electricity has been identified as the major source of energy to the various unit operations except the evaporator and extractor which are also powered by heat energy. With prekese feed flow rate of 1000 kg/h, the total electrical power requirement was determined to be 88.06 kW and steam power requirement was 55.19 kW. The capacity of the washer, miller, extractor, filter, evaporator and mixer were respectively 56.5 m3, 1020 kg/h, 7.1 m3/h, 5.97 m3/h, 14.13 m3/h and 10 m3/h.