Product category:
Plant Design and Construction
News Release from: Pursuit Dynamics | Subject: PDX Fluid Handling System
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 16 March 2004
New process cuts cooking and cleaning
time by 95%
A PDX Fluid Handling System installed in a pilot plant has reduced cooking times for sauces by up to 95%, and clean-down time between batches is also around 80% lower
A PDX Fluid Handling System installed in a pilot plant has reduced cooking times for sauces by up to 95%, and clean-down time between batches is also around 80% lower Pursuit Dynamics, developer of the PDX system, has been working with Welcome Food Ingredients, a leading UK-based manufacturer of prepared sauces and similar products, to assess the efficiency of the system for cooking and mixing a variety of sauces and pastes
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 17 Jun 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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In addition to the many process advantages of the system, taste and texture remain uncompromised.
As an example of the results from the pilot plant, a 60kg batch of sauce was mixed and cooked in just over three minutes, which compares with around one hour for conventional plant.
Over 20 other products have been processed so far, including soups, sauces, stocks, and chutneys.
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Alex Sutton, Operations Director at Welcome Food Ingredients, comments: "We are very impressed by the speed of the process and with the resulting product.
Moreover, it may enable us to create new sauces, pastes and other products that cannot be manufactured commercially using conventional processes.
The faster cooking and mixing, together with shorter changeover times, will make a significant difference to our business".
Aside from the faster mixing, heating and cooking, clean-down is also quicker and simpler because the PDX system has no moving parts, only steam injection via a series of nozzles.
Cleaning is achieved in around five minutes by passing a cleaning solution through the system and injecting steam, thereby cleaning and sterilising the system and eliminating any risk of product cross-contamination.
This easy, thorough cleaning also means that plant managers need not be concerned with the order in which recipes are prepared.
A further benefit of the PDX system is that all of the ingredients can be placed in the vessel together at the start of the process, eliminating the requirement to adhere to carefully timed recipe sheets.
Nonetheless, if the recipe should call for it, powders and liquids can be sequentially entrained into the flow through the PDX device.
With no moving parts, the PDX system is highly reliable and requires virtually no maintenance.
Thanks to the significantly improved cooking and mixing process, energy consumption is substantially lower than processes relying on conventional technologies.
Another advantage of the PDX system is that its small footprint makes it simple to retrofit to existing plant.
While the assessment was performed using a single PDX device with a 25mm bore, re-circulating a batch at a rate in the order of 15,000L/hr, the system can readily be scaled up and down and/or converted to a continuous process where volumes demand it.
Stephen Mahon, Commercial Director at Pursuit Dynamics, comments: "These results clearly demonstrate the processing efficiency of the system as well as its versatility.
PDX is ideal for manufacturers of prepared foods who have to meet ever-tighter turnaround times, and who want a reliable system that is easy to clean.".
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