Homogenization is one of the normative processing
stages in dairy foods production. One of the topical
problems of the modern food industry is to design energy
effective equipment for homogenization of milk
emulsions. The perspective method to intensify milk
fat phase dispersing is to improve pulsation homogenization.
Such machines combine high energy efficiency
and dispersion degree which exceed the indexes of
valve homogenizer. The aim of researches is to decline
power consumption of the process of milk pulsation
homogenization by optimizing its parameters.
Experimental pulsation homogenizer has a piston with
openings which performs sinusoidal oscillations in the
cylindrical chamber and is driven by crank gear. The
product is supplied into the homogenizer by the volumetric
pump. Creating high velocity relative slip between
a fat globule and milk plasma causes size reduction
of the milk fat. To find out the optimal parameters
of the process the graphic methods of the local optimization
are used. Emulsion dispersion degree was
determined by measuring fat globules sizes by optical
microscope with digital camera. Conducted researches on the pulsation homogenizer
showed high correlation between the acceleration
of emulsion and fat globules average size. The analytically
got results are experimentally confirmed on
increasing dispersion degree whereas the specific
energy consumption declines and piston oscillation
frequency increases. Using conical openings of the piston
compared with cylindrical ones makes it possible
to reduce energy consumption of the homogenizer. Decreasing coefficient of the piston open area negatively
affects milk dispersion degree. Using piston with
the conical openings at its oscillation amplitude of 10
mm and vibrations frequency of 150 s-1 and emulsion
acceleration of about 105 m/s2 it is possible to get milk
emulsion with the average dispersion of the fat phase
of 0.8 μm. Specific energy consumption here does not
exceed 3400 J/kg.
The received results prove high potential of further research-
and-developments of the industrial prototype
of the pulsation homogenizer
