JPH051041B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a pressurized freeze-concentrator for producing various beverage liquids, medicinal liquids, or other concentrated liquids.

[Prior art and its drawbacks]

There is a method of first freezing the mother liquor for concentration, and then pressurizing the ice crystals of the frozen mother liquor to selectively separate a concentrate rich in solutes from the ice crystals, thereby obtaining concentrated liquids for various beverages, medicinal solutions, etc. .

In other words, because the freezing points of the solvent and solute are different, there is a highly concentrated solution trapped between the solvent crystals in the ice crystals, and this highly concentrated solution rich in solute is extracted. In particular, a concentrated solution is obtained.

For this purpose, a pressurized freezing device is used, which lowers the freezing point of the solvent by pressurizing the ice crystals, melts the solvent crystals without applying heat of fusion, and efficiently extracts the concentrated liquid trapped within the crystals. It will be done.

The condensate thus removed has a relatively low freezing point and is difficult to freeze, but the solvent released from pressure easily refreezes. Therefore,
The concentration of the concentrated liquid will not be diluted to the same level as the mother liquor due to absorption of the molten solvent into the concentrated liquid.

However, since the concentrated liquid separated from the ice crystals in this way also contains a solvent, the concentrated liquid flows along the fine gap between the pressure surface of the pressure mechanism and the outer surface of the ice crystals to the low pressure side ( When moving upward (when pressurizing from top to bottom), the concentrated liquid may stagnate due to uneven pressurization and may be cooled and frozen on the outer surface of the ice crystals and the inner surface of the taper hole. In addition, in order to quickly move the concentrated liquid to the concentrated liquid recovery section, the pressurization pressure must be increased, so it cannot be said that the concentrated liquid is collected efficiently. Ta.

[Objective] The present invention has a mechanism in which the ice crystals are lowered by a tensile wire rod in order to increase the processing capacity of the concentrated liquid from the ice crystals, and the concentrated liquid separated from the ice crystals by pressurization is used. It has become possible to provide a pressurized freeze concentrator that can efficiently recover liquid.

〔means〕

In order to achieve the above object, the pressurized freeze concentrator according to the present invention connects a pressurizing cylinder having a tapered hole to the lower part of the vertical cooling cylinder to which the mother liquor for concentration is supplied, and A drain pipe for recovering concentrated liquid is connected to the upper part of the tapered hole at a suitable position, so that an endless tensile wire for pulling ice crystals is routed through the cooling cylinder and the pressurizing cylinder, A guide groove, one end of which communicates with the opening in the taper hole of the drain pipe, is provided on the inner surface of the taper hole.

[Effect]

The ice crystals pulled downward by the tensile wire are pressurized as they pass through the tapered hole, and the concentrated liquid is separated from the ice crystals.

The concentrated liquid flows along the inner surface of the tapered hole to the nearby guide groove on the low-pressure side, and the concentrated liquid in the guide groove is successively pushed upwards by the subsequent concentrated liquid flowing into the guide groove, and becomes a drain. It is led out of the device from the pipe.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of a specific example shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of the apparatus according to the present invention, in which a vertical cylinder 2 serving as a cooling section has a container 1 for mother liquor at the top.
A pressurizing cylinder 3 having a tapered hole that is a pressurizing part is connected to the lower part of the cylinder 2, and the cylinder 2 and the pressurizing cylinder 3 are connected by interposing a heat insulating material 6 between the flanges 4 and 5 of both cylinders. It has been done.

Note that the mother liquor dissolver 1 and the cylinder 2 are, for example, a cylindrical body 1b having a funnel-shaped hopper portion 1a at the upper part.
They are connected by.

Further, a tank 7 having a drain valve V at the bottom is provided at the bottom of the pressurizing cylinder 3, and a tensile wire 8 such as a chain, which is endlessly fed, is passed from the hole at the bottom of the mother liquor dissolver 1 into the cylinder 2. , enters the tank 7 through the pressurizing cylinder 3, is reversed upward by the inner wheel 9, is driven by the drive wheel 10, passes through the intermediate guide wheels 11 and 12, and is sent from the supply wheel 13 to the mother liquor dissolver as described above. 1. It is designed to be sent to cylinder 2.

The cylinder 2 is provided with jackets 14 and 15, which are two upper and lower cooling parts.
7a is an inlet for each cooling medium, 16b and 17b
indicates each same exit.

A jacket 18 is also provided on the pressurizing cylinder 3, which is a pressurizing body, and reference numerals 19a and 19b indicate respective inlets and outlets for fluid.

A drain pipe 20 for recovering the concentrated liquid is connected to the upper surface of the pressurizing cylinder 3, that is, the upper part of the tapered hole.

Furthermore, a spiral guide groove 21 is provided on the inner surface of the tapered hole, and one end of this guide groove 21 is communicated with the opening in the taper hole of the drain pipe 20.

In addition, the guide groove provided on the inner surface of the tapered hole is
As shown in FIG. 3a, the guide groove 21a may have multiple spiral stripes, or the guide groove 21b may have a large number of vertical grooves as shown in FIG. 3b.

Note that the upper end of each guide groove and the drain pipe 20
The inner opening of the tapered hole is communicated with through a pocket 22a for liquid storage as shown in FIG. 3a, or
As shown in FIG. 3b, there is also a case where communication is made via an annular groove 22b provided along the inner periphery of the tapered hole.

In the pressurized freeze concentrator configured as described above, the mother liquor for concentration is supplied in appropriate amounts to the mother liquor container 1 by the pump P, for example, and the solution overflowing from the hopper part 1a passes through the cylinder 1b and runs along the inner wall surface of the cylinder. It is washed away.

At this time, the cylinder cooling lower jacket 15
A cooling medium that can lower the temperature of the inner wall surface of the cylinder to below the freezing point of the mother liquor for concentration flows through the cylinder.

As a result, the solution flowing down the inner wall surface of the cylinder little by little is cooled by the cooling medium flowing through the lower jacket and quickly freezes into ice 23.
As a result, the solution flowing on the surface of the cylinder is gradually frozen and ice grows, until the lower part of the cylinder is blocked by ice.

After this blockage, the cooling medium is also caused to flow into the upper jacket 14 of the cylinder by a command from a timer, for example, and the capacity of the pump P is increased so that the amount of solution discharged can always fill the cylinder with solution. There is.

The solution injected into the cylinder is transferred to the upper jacket 1.
The tensile wire rod 8 is frozen by the cooling medium flowing through it.
It forms ice crystals that are tightly bound together.

The tensile wire 8 is driven to descend within the cylinder 2, thereby causing the ice crystals to also descend.

The ice crystals that passed through the cylinder together with the tensile wire
It enters the next pressurizing cylinder 3 and is squeezed and pressurized by the inner surface of the tapered hole of the pressurizing cylinder.

This pressurization lowers the freezing point of the ice crystals, causing the ice crystals to melt starting from the areas where the solute concentration is high, and the melted concentrate moves from areas where the pressure applied to the ice crystals is high to areas where the pressure is low.

As the outer surface of the ice crystals is not in contact with the guide groove 21 formed on the inner surface of the taper hole, no pressure is generated, and the guide groove becomes a low-pressure area within the taper hole, and the guide groove 21 is formed along the surface of the taper hole. The concentrated liquid flows into the guide groove 21.

The concentrated liquid separated from the ice crystals is transferred to the guide groove 21 at any time.
As the concentrated liquid flows into the guide groove, the concentrated liquid in the guide groove is successively pushed up, guided out of the apparatus through the drain pipe 20, and collected in a collection container (not shown) or the like.

〔effect〕

As explained above, according to the pressurized freeze-concentrator according to the present invention, the concentrated liquid separated from the ice crystals by pressurization flows into the guide groove on the inner surface of the tapered hole, which is the low-pressure part, and flows along the guide groove. Since the concentrated liquid is guided to the drain pipe, it is possible to efficiently collect the concentrated liquid, and since the concentrated liquid is sequentially supplied into the guide groove, a flow of almost constant speed is generated in the guide groove to the drain pipe, and the concentrated liquid is This prevents the liquid from freezing due to stagnation.

In addition, since the concentrated liquid separated by pressurization flows into the guide groove near the low-pressure part, there is no need for a large amount of pressurizing force to push the concentrated liquid directly into the inlet of the drain pipe, which is better than before. Sufficient concentrate can be recovered with a small applied pressure.

In the above embodiment, the mother liquor for concentration was supplied from the upper mother liquor tank into the cooling cylinder, and the mother liquor was frozen in the cylinder to form ice crystals that bonded to the tensile wire. It is not limited to this.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of a pressurized freeze-concentrator according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged longitudinal sectional view, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing another embodiment of the pressurized cylinder. be. In the figure 1...Mother liquor container, 1a...Hopper part, 1b
... Cylindrical body, 2... Cooling cylinder, 3... Pressure cylinder, 4,
5... Flange, 6... Heat insulating material, 7... Tank, 8... Tensile wire, 9-13... Wheel, 14, 15... Jacket, 16a, 17a... Inlet for cooling medium, 16
b, 17b... Outlet for cooling medium, 18... Jacket, 19a... Inlet for fluid, 19b... Outlet for fluid, 20... Drain pipe, 21, 21a, 21b
...Guide groove, 22a...Pocket, 22b...Annular groove, 23...Ice.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Connect a pressurizing cylinder with a tapered hole to the bottom of the vertical cooling cylinder to which the mother liquor for concentration is supplied, and connect a drain pipe for recovering the concentrated liquid that opens at a suitable place above the taper hole. , an endless tensile wire for pulling ice crystals is routed through the cooling cylinder and the pressurizing cylinder, and one end of the guide groove is tapered to communicate with the opening in the tapered hole of the drain pipe. A pressurized freezing and concentrating device that is installed on the inner surface of a hole.