Scale up and design of a pilot plant to produce an aqueous extract of Chuquiraga jussieui J.F Gmel

Abstract

The objective of this work is to design a pilot plant for the production of an aqueous extract of Chuquiraga jussieui JF Gmelnative speciesof Ecuador that will be used as the main raw material to produce functional beverages with antioxidant activity. The average consumption and the potential of functional beverages in ManabiEcuador are set by a market study.After process steps were defined at laboratory level, the stability of  the aqueous extract at three temperatures and three times is analyzed by accelerated stability method, the flowchart and technological scheme for processing is constructed and then the scaling and selection of pilot scale equipment is performed. The results show that a potential market for functional drinks consumption for processing 1400 liters daily exists, the process steps are set at the laboratory and is defined that the aqueous extract has a stability of 30 days at 4 Celsiusdegrees, because the main operation in process is the solid-liquid extraction and the main equipment used for this is a mixing tank, it was scale up usinggeometric similarity and mixing power per volumeconstant criteria.