Not-from-concentrate (NFC) juices – and orange juice in particular – continue to grow in popularity, with global transport dominated by frozen juice to maintain quality and freshness. The standard lined 200 litre drums used are convenient and easy to handle, but extracting, breaking up and melting the frozen juice is not always easy or straight forward.
The HRS I Series consists of two different pieces of equipment which can be specified separately or combined into an integrated system.
The HRS IC Series is designed to efficiently de-pack and crush frozen juice from 200 litre drums. It features a roller conveyor which feeds individual drums into a tipper which then empties the contents into a crusher. Here, a specially designed rotating drum fitted with a spiked roller crushes the solid ice into an icy slush suitable for re-melting. This is pumped to the next stage of the process using an integrated positive displacement pump.
The HRS IM Series melts crushed ice and uses using either HRS MI Series multitube or HRS DTA Series double-tube corrugated shell and tube heat exchangers. Depending on the product, the temperature is raised to between 0°C and 4°C in around 90 seconds. From here, the cold liquid juice can be pumped to a holding tank, or straight into the next process step.
Heat comes from hot water on the shell side of the heat exchanger, and the IM Series is fully clean-in-place (CIP) compliant and clad in hygienic stainless steel, with optional insulation to reduce energy loss and protect workers from hot or cold surfaces.
When used together, the HRS I Series is suitable for frozen fruit juice concentrates, fruit juices and purees (up to 70° brix) with a maximum viscosity of 20,000 cP. The I Series can process up to 60 drums (12,000 litres) per hour. As well as de-packing and re-melting, HRS Heat Exchangers can also supply a full range of processing equipment for the juice manufacturing sector, from full turnkey process lines to individual components including tanks, pasteurisation systems and aseptic filling solutions.
