Feasibility of Producing Tomato Paste with Different Solids Content
Which alternative is more feasible for producing tomato paste with different solids content?
Analysis of Feasibility
a) Production of 28% paste by feeding all the pulp to the evaporator.
b) Production of 32% paste in the evaporator which is then blended with 6% pulp bypassing the evaporator.
c) What percentage of the feed is to be bypassed?
Option a:
If we feed all the pulp to the evaporator, which has a solids content of 6%, and we want to obtain a 28% tomato paste, we need to concentrate the solids content in the pulp. To calculate the amount of solids in the final 28% paste, we can set up a proportion using the mass of solids in the pulp and the mass of solids in the paste:(6% solids in pulp) / (100% pulp mass) = (28% solids in paste) / (100% paste mass)
Solving for x, we find:
x = (6/28) * 100 = 21.43%
Therefore, to produce a 28% paste by feeding all the pulp to the evaporator, we would need to bypass 21.43% of the feed.
Option b:
In this case, we produce a 32% paste in the evaporator and then blend it with 6% pulp bypassing the evaporator. To calculate the overall solids content in this case, we need to take into account the proportion of the 32% paste and the 6% pulp:(32% solids in paste) * (x) + (6% solids in pulp) * (1 - x) = (100% overall solids content)
Solving for x, we find:
x = 0.94 / 0.26 = 3.62%
Therefore, to obtain an overall solids content of 100% in this case, we would need to bypass 3.62% of the feed.