ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Worldwide icecream is considered favorite dessert and its consumption is increasing day by day. Icecream manufacturing comprises of processes like pasteurization, homogenization, chilling of mix, and freezing. Around 65°–70°C of temperature is required for pasteurization which is achieved by using hot water generated by electricity or gas or other fuels. Around 1°C chilled water is required to be supplied by refrigeration for cooling the icecream mix. Aging of this mix is to be done for 5-6 h in aging tank at 4°C and then it is taken to the freezer to produce icecream. Also, icecream plant requires large amount of hot water for cleaning and sanitizing the equipments, piping, utensils and washing floors. As in icecream manufacturing process, both heating and cooling are required; the use of heatpump may prove to be a better solution. In this paper, detailed economic analysis has been given for heat pump integrated icecream making plant. The aim of process integration is to reduce the energy consumption and, thereby, the operating cost of the icecream making. Heating and cooling requirement for 2,000 L of icecream production per day has been calculated. Suitable heat pump has been integrated to the existing plant in order to have benefit of heating utility for partial pasteurization upto temperature 58°C and cooling utility for the partial cooling of mix upto temperature 18°C. Saving of around 34% of energy consumption is made by the heat pump integrated systems. As per the calculations, simple payback period for modified icecream making plant with heat pump is just 2.2 years.
