Inline Refractometers for Fruit and Vegetable Juice Concentration

Inline Refractometers for Fruit and Vegetable Juice Concentration

The array of fruits processed into concentrate includes almost every commercially harvested type. The production of fruit juice concentrate involves taking a comparatively dilute feedstock of fruit juice and delivering a uniformly concentrated output. Fruit juice concentrate contains the feedstock fruit juice's solid components and provides more accessible transportation and longer storage life. The method of producing fruit juice concentrates is an excellent way to save money on packaging and transportation. It also ensures that the final goods are of consistent quality. In the meantime, the rise in sugar and acid content favors preservation. Qualified fruit juice concentrate must maintain the same color, taste, and nutrition as the original fruit juice.

Water is removed from freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice to make fruit juice concentrate.  The process requires the removal of water through a variety of operations employing purpose-specific equipment.  Juice is extracted from various fruits in several ways, specifically adapted for its shape, size, and nature. 

Vacuum Concentration
Vacuum concentrate systems, refrigeration-based concentrations, and membrane-based concentrations are the most used fruit juice processing technologies. 

Vacuum concentration necessitates heating fruit juice under low pressure to lower the boiling point and allow the water content to evaporate quickly. The most critical and commonly used device in the fruit juice concentration process is vacuum concentration equipment.

Freeze Concentration
Lowering the temperature of fruit juice to ice point is referred to as freeze concentration. Before the concentration of fruit juice exceeds the eutectic threshold, the water content freezes and separates. 

Membrane Concentration
Reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration are two forms of membrane technology. It operates based on osmotic pressure. A semipermeable membrane built in the center divides a container into two parts, with each position filled with solution A and solution B separately. 

No matter the method used, juice concentration will vary initially due to several natural factors. The concentration process chosen must produce output that will provide product uniformity.

Regardless of the method used for concentrating the juice, inline process refractometers can be used at strategic points in the concentration process to measure the percentage of solids and evaluate equipment performance and product quality. 

Inline refractometers produce accurate and repeatable output signals that allow the process to rapidly adjust, opening control valves, adjust the flow, change pressure, or modulate temperature.  The use of these instruments provides a continuous measurement of the process variables, ensuring consistency and making the most efficient use of the energy-consuming concentration equipment.

In a high-volume commercial juice production environment, ruggedness, reliability, and accuracy are critical features for an inline process refractometer.  While the devices are not inexpensive, their upfront investment pays off quickly in production speed and product quality.

Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com​​
+1 352-669-3101

Industrial Applications for Inline Refractometers

Industrial Applications for Inline Refractometers

The applications for inline industrial refractometers are many. Outlined below are several of the more common applications and processes.


Spray Dryers: Spray drying is a way to produce a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by drying quickly with a warm gas, a preferred drying technique for many thermally sensitive products like foods and pharmaceuticals. Consistent distribution of particle size is the goal for spray drying. Process refractometer monitors the feed line's concentration to the spray dryer, ensuring correct particle size after drying and improving product shelf life.


Evaporation: An evaporator is a tool used to transform the liquid form of a chemical substance such as water into its gaseous / vapor form. During that phase, the liquid is evaporated or vaporized into a gas. Inline refractometers provide real-time data of concentration changes in the process media.


Crystallizers: In industry, crystallizers create liquid-solid separation. They are an essential component of chemical processing equipment as they can generate high-purity products from a relatively low energy input. The refractometer controls the liquor concentration to determine the right seeding point (evaporative crystallizer) or to detect when crystals start to form (cooling crystallizer).


Dissolving Tanks: Dissolving tanks dissolve solids into a liquid, thereby changing the concentration of the solution. Refractometers provide continuous measurement of the concentration components in solution as the solute dissolves into water or solvent, with real-time information for dissolving rate. 


Solid / Liquid Extraction - Solid / Liquid extraction method is a prevalent method in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries to acquire natural ingredients such as natural raw material flavors and fragrances. Inline refractometers measure the amount of extracted substance (dissolved solids) in the liquid after the extraction process. The measurement is not affected by undissolved solids, only by the dissolved matter, making it ideal to follow extraction efficiency. 


Reverse Osmosis: Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification method that removes ions, unwanted molecules, and bigger particles from drinking water using a partially permeable membrane. Inline refractometers provide real-time data of concentration changes in the process media.


Reactors: Process reactors are typical in commercial production applications in adhesives processing, agriculture, chemical processing, cosmetics, food and beverage production, paints and coating production, paper and pulp processing, pharmaceutical and medical production, plastics, and thermoplastics processing. The real-time progress can be followed using inline refractometers, either through the leveling out of process key process variables or reaching a single component's targeted refractive index value.


Cooking Processes: The art, technology, science, and craftsmanship of preparing food for consumption are cooking. The large-scale production of juices, jams, jellies, dairy, and fruits in modern production facilities requires automation and control instrumentation for quality and efficiency. Sugar is a critical component in many foods. The inline refractometer measures the refractive index to determine the cooking process's end and boost the cooking effectiveness.

Other areas where you'll find the use of industrial process refractometers are; adhesives processing, agriculture, chemical processing, cosmetics, food and beverage production, paints and coating production, paper and pulp processing, pharmaceutical, plastics, and thermoplastics processing.


For more information about applying the refractive index to industrial process applications, contact Electron Machine by calling 352-669-3101 or by visiting https://electronmachine.com.

Demonstration of Measuring °Brix in Tomato-based Food Products with an Inline Process Refractometer

Are you a producer of tomato-based food products that wants better quality control while reducing cost? Stay tuned to see how the inline process refractometer can help you out.

Welcome to Electron Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most rugged refractometer, found in various industries across the globe.  

Typically installed in a pipeline, the MPR E-Scan is set up here as a demonstration equipment piece. In this demo, a static cup measures a variety of popular tomato-based food products. In production, the refractometer is commonly installed right inline with the process piping of the tomato-based product being run. 

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this demonstration into what the refractometer can do and how it measures the sugar content of tomato-based product. Stay tuned for the next series of videos. We'll highlight another product for the refractometer to measure. 

Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com​​
+1 352-669-3101

Demonstration of Measuring °Brix in Soft Drinks (Soda) with an Inline Process Refractometer

Are you a soda manufacturer that wants better quality control while reducing cost? Stay tuned to see how the inline process refractometer can help you out.

Welcome to Electron Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most rugged refractometer, found in various industries across the globe. 

The next series of videos will highlight some of the most common applications for Electron Machine refractometers. 

Typically installed in a pipeline, the MPR E-Scan is set up here as a demonstration equipment piece. In this demo, a static cup measures a variety of popular sodas. The refractometer s commonly installed either on a bottling line to determine what soda you're running or on the blending line mixing the syrup with the carbonated water to ensure that it stays at the correct consistency from bottle to bottle. 

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this quick little look into what the refractometer actually can do and how it measures orange juice. Stay tuned for the next series of videos. We'll highlight another product for the refractometer to measure. 

Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com​
+1 352-669-3101

Demonstration of Measuring °Brix in Fruit Juices with an Inline Process Refractometer

Are you a juice manufacturer that wants better quality control while reducing cost? Stay tuned to see how this instrument can help you out.

Welcome to Electron Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most rugged refractometer, found in various industries across the globe. 

The next series of videos will highlight some of the most common applications for Electron Machine refractometers. 

Typically installed in a pipeline, the MPR E-Scan is set up here as a piece of demonstration equipment. In this demo, a static cup measures a variety of juices. The juice industry uses refractometers to make sure they have a consistent product by concentrating or blending it. You may mix different types of orange juices to keep the same flavor and taste throughout the year. 

You also may concentrate the liquid, such as you find in a frozen can of apple juice. The refractometer ensures it stays consistent so that when you add three or four cans of water to it, it tastes as it should. In other cases, they sometimes add sugar to the juices to control the °Brix content, and that's where the refractometer excels. 

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this quick little look into what the refractometer actually can do and how it measures orange juice. Stay tuned for the next series of videos. We'll highlight another product for the refractometer to measure. 

Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101

Improve Your Food Production Process with Continuous, Inline Process Refractometers

Improve Food Production Process

Adherence to the concentration of dissolved substances in food production is crucial for consistent product quality. Using a refractive index measuring instrument called a refractometer is an excellent method to monitor these concentrations. 

Refractometers measure the magnitude of redirection light when immersed in a fluid, referred to as the angle of refraction. The refractometer takes these measurements and correlates them to the refractive index (nD) - a long-established calculation of known values. These values determine the concentrations of the solutions.

Measuring the dissolved solids in food production offers enormous potential for increased efficiency and quality. In many applications, the process is manual, whereby measurements are done by hand repetitively and at short intervals. This is disruptive to the process and slow. A much more efficient and time-saving way is by taking process measurements with a pipe mounted (inline) continuous refractometer, such as the Electron Machine MPR E-Scan

The density of the liquid varies as the number of dissolved particles increases or decreases. The MPR E-Scan continuously monitors the concentration using an inline sensor, enabling accurate measuring of the devolved solids, enabling repeatable management of the process. Typical applications run the gamut in all aspects of the food industry.  Examples in food production include control of sugar concentration of juices, soft drinks, jams, jellies; measuring the milk fat solids in dairy products; and  mash measurements, wort concentration, and alcohol level. By taking measurements continually and in real-time, production run time are shortened and efficiency is dramatically increased. 

Electron Machine Corporation
https://electronmachine.com
+1 352-669-3101


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