| The purpose of this project is to develop a continuously producing process for D.D. Williamson & Co., Inc. for the manufacture of a powdered caramel color. To produce the powdered form, a liquid caramel color must first be manufactured. For this liquid product, only a batch reactor is capable of being used. Because of this restriction, a series of batch reactors is required to allow the product to be continuously dispensed onto a cooling belt. The cooling belt is utilized to convert a molten liquid caramel color into a solid mass, which is dispensed into a grinding apparatus to create caramel color powder. The objective of this project was to determine the optimal reactor volume, number of reactors, and operating parameters.; Using a pressurized reactor, steam, a glucose source and various other catalysts, caramel color can be manufactured. The main target for every type of caramel coloring is the color absorbance of the product. The Food Chemical Codex Standard dictates that absorbance is the amount of color absorbed at 610 nanometers of a 0.1 percent color solution (weight per volume) using a suitable spectrophotometer. Through a series of trial runs, residence time and the amount of color absorbance gain was determined in a 50 gallon stainless steel batch reactor. Using the color absorbance results as well as the discharge rates, the optimal reactor volume was determined to be 300 gallons and five reactors are required to allow the process to continuously produce product. |
