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Improving the production efficiency of sweet potato starch using a newly designed sedimentation tank during starch sedimentation process
Author(s) -
Wang Xuan,
Wang Jing,
Liu Haihua,
Zhao Liang,
Wang Yongtao,
Wu Xiaomeng,
Liao Xiaojun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of food processing and preservation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.511
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1745-4549
pISSN - 0145-8892
DOI - 10.1111/jfpp.14811
Subject(s) - starch , sedimentation , food science , potato starch , slurry , chemistry , environmental science , biology , sediment , environmental engineering , paleontology
Starch sedimentation process in sweet potato starch production traditionally uses sedimentation pond (SP), but it is often time‐consuming with contamination issues. In order to improve the production efficiency, a sedimentation tank (ST) was designed, and its effect on the starch and protein contents, bacterial composition, and pH of the slurry was evaluated in comparison with the SP. The sedimentation process using ST took 12 hr less time, and it resulted in more thorough starch sedimentation with 0.76% less starch content in the surface liquid. The higher initial pH of ST (6.01–6.69) contributed to less protein contamination of starch. The bacteria composition later in the starch sedimentation process was significantly different in two production equipment, with Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus being the dominant bacteria in ST and SP, respectively. All these results confirmed that ST was more efficient for starch sedimentation with less production time, increased starch yield, and improved starch quality. Practical applications This study was conducted during real production operation in one of the largest sweet potato starch manufacture in China. The results demonstrated that the utilization of ST had apparent advantages over SP in industrial‐scale production. Moreover, similar sedimentation equipment and procedure can also be applied to the production of other starch products, such as potato starch, corn starch, and wheat starch.