Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Optimum design and operating conditions of multiple effect evaporators:

Tomato paste
R. Simpson *, S. Almonacid, D. Lpez, A. Abakarov
Departamento de Procesos Qumicos, Biotecnolgicos, y Ambientales, Universidad Tcnica Federico Santa Mara, Casilla P.O. Box 110-V, Valparaso, Chile

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 January 2008
Received in revised form 24 May 2008
Accepted 27 May 2008
Available online 10 June 2008
Keywords:
Multi-effect evaporators
Economic evaluation
Net Present Value
Quality
Lycopene
Process optimization

a b s t r a c t
Agro industry is a very important industrial sector worldwide, especially for countries like New Zealand
and Chile. The main objective of this research was to propose a new economic evaluation procedure to
optimize the design and operation of multiple effect evaporators and compare it with the traditional
chemical engineering approach of total cost minimization. The proposed strategy incorporates a quality
factor expressed as a function of lycopene concentration on the nal product to nd the optimal number
of effects and operating conditions through the maximization of the net present value.
The mathematical model was implemented using Microsoft Excel and considered mass and energy balances, specic relations for tomato concentration and a rst order degradation kinetic for lycopene. The
results indicate that when augmenting the capacity of the evaporation system of 5 effects from 50 to
75 Ton/h, the lycopene retention increases from 95.25% to 96.27%. When evaluating the system through
the logic of the total cost minimization, an optimum of 4 effects is found, but when evaluating the system
using the maximization of the Net Present Value including lycopene as a quality parameter, the optimum
is 3 effects.
It appears of extreme relevance to consider quality as an intrinsic and integral part of the process
design, as it will then be possible to identify several potential improvements in different food processes.
2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Process optimization has always been a noble objective of engineers entrusted with the responsibility for process development
and improvement throughout the food industry. Examples of
sophisticated mathematical approaches to process optimization,
in which some objective function is maximized or minimized
subject to chosen constraints, are widely published in literature
(Douglas, 1988). On the other hand, the chemical industry has used
cost analysis in several cases in relation to design and process optimization. A classical example in the chemical industry is the determination of the optimal number of effects in a evaporation system,
were the optimum is found when there is an economic balance between energy saving and added investment, this is, a minimization
of the total cost (Kern, 1999). In this vision, although correctly, quality is not considered as a parameter in the determination of the optimum number of effects, so the process specications and operating
conditions are assumed independent of both product quality as its
sale price. The purpose of this manuscript is to suggest that the
extrapolation of optimization problems from chemical industry to
the food industry may often be restricted to an unnecessarily narrow or local domain, and that a more global perspective may reap
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +56 32 2654302; fax: +56 32 2654478.
E-mail address: ricardo.simpson@usm.cl (R. Simpson).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2008.05.033

greater rewards. Questions as to just what should be maximized

or minimized, or what are the real constraints, as opposed to only
those that are immediately apparent, are questions often posed
without a broad enough view of the big picture.
China continues to make inroads in the world market. China is
the worlds largest tomato products producer and exporter, followed by the EU and the United States. China produces tomato
products mainly for the export market, with exports accounting
for more than 85% of production. Since calendar year (CY) 1999,
Chinas tomato paste exports have had an average annual increase
of 30% (USDA, 2007).
The production of tomato paste is highly seasonal, and then,
maximizing production levels in this industry is of vital importance. The process is generally done in multiple evaporation systems, with a different number of effects, through which the
content of water is diminished until a nal concentration from
30 to 32 Brix is acquired, and where temperatures generally do
not exceed 70 C.
Lycopene is the main carotenoid found in tomatoes and many
studies have showed its inhibiting effect on carcinogenic cell
growth (Shi et al, 2007). It is also the component which generates
the red characteristic color in tomatoes, among other fruits and
vegetables (Goula and Adamopoulos, 2006). A study developed
by the University of Harvard, revealed that the consumption of
lycopene reduced the probabilities of generating prostate cancer

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

489

Nomenclature
A
Cu
Cp
Deb
E
F
H
i
I
k
k0
K0
M
m
n
NPV
O

heat transfer area, m2

cost per unit, US$/kg
specic heat of concentrate (kJ kg1 C1)
boiling point elevation (BPE) or Boiling point rise (BPR)
(C)
activation energy (kJ/mol)
mass owrate (kg/h)
enthalpy (kJ/kg)
annual interest rate
total investment (US$)
reaction rate constant (1/h)
frequency factor (1/h)
constant
mass in the evaporator (kg)
project shelf life, years
number of effects
net present value (US$)
evaporation system operation

by 45%, in a population of 48,000 subjects who had at least 10 rations of tomatoes or sub products in their weekly diet. Other research discovered that lycopene also reduces cholesterol levels in
the form of a lipoprotein of low density (LDL), which produces atherosclerosis; this means that the consumption of tomatoes reduces
the effects produced by cardiovascular diseases.
Lycopene as the main organic compound presents a denaturalization reaction rate that is time and temperature dependent. Then,
for the mathematical model of the behavior of multi-effect evaporators, it is very important to have a good overview of the general
uctuation of lycopene retention or loss under different system designs and operating conditions.
As aforementioned, most food processes have been adapted and
extrapolated from the chemical engineering industry without an
adequate consideration of product quality during system design
and process optimization. That is certainly a good start, but maybe
somewhat limited and might have inhibited us to take a more global view. For example, it appears of extreme relevance to consider
quality more frequently as an intrinsic and integral part of process
design. In the food industry, the main effort is commonly related to
the maximization of the quality of the product, which is not necessarily the case in the chemical industry. Generally the optimization
of food processes have been restricted to determining the optimal
operating conditions of an allegedly, well designed food process.
Nevertheless, if quality is considered as a parameter in the system
design, it is very probable that the new design will differ from the
original one.
For example, in the case of a multiple effect evaporator system
for the processing of tomatoes, the optimization of the design is
only focused on an economic analysis which combines the investment (number of effects) and the operating costs (steam consumption) (Kern, 1999). This strategy does not include quality as an
integral part of the economic evaluation, even though previous
studies have demonstrated the dependence of the nal product
price towards quality of the nal product (Schoorl and Holt, 1983).
The main objective of this research work is to propose a new
economic evaluation procedure to optimize the system design
and operation of tomato juice, multiple effect evaporator and compare it to the traditional chemical engineering approach of total
cost minimization. The proposed strategy will incorporate a quality
factor which will be expressed as a function of lycopene concentration on the nal product to nd the optimal number of effects and
operating conditions through the maximization of the Net Present
Value (NPV).

P
Pu
Q
Q*j
R
T
t
X
Y

pressure (kPa)
unit sales price (US$/kg)
heat ow (kJ)
annual production at period j (units/year)
ideal gases constant (CkJ/mol)
temperature (C)
time (h)
concentration of soluble solids, kg ss/kg
lycopene concentration kgL/kg ss

Subscripts
c
condensing
d
download
e
cooling
i
evaporator effect, i
j
evaluation period, j
p
losses

2. Methodology
2.1. Problem description
Cost analysis has been extensively and correctly utilized in nding the best process design in several chemical engineering plants.
A classical example is multi-effect distillation. In this case, cost
analysis should aim to determine the optimum number of effects
in multiple-stage equipment. According to the literature in chemical engineering The optimum number of effects must be found from
an economic balance between the savings in steam obtained by multiple effect operation and added investment. It is important to elucidate whether the aforementioned approach is recommendable in
the optimization of food processes? From a microeconomics point
of view, this approach is correct but, it is important to consider that
the different equipment congurations are producing exactly the
same quality of the end product. Meaning that, independent of
the number of effects, not only will we be able to reach the same degree of concentration, but also the same quality. In addition, by
changing the equipment conguration it is possible to attain the
same degree of concentration but with different product quality.
At least, for multi-effect evaporation in food processing, the referred approach is not necessarily the right micro-economic tool
to nd the optimum number of effects. For this kind of application,
a correct micro-economic analysis should consider not only all
costs but also the expected benets. According to the relevant technical literature, an adequate micro-economic procedure is to maximize the NPV.
In the case of the evaporation process for tomato paste, the production is highly seasonal, and, in addition, the product quality
could be highly affected by the operating conditions. Therefore, it
is important to consider the impact of the installed capacity and
the nal product quality. In the following, we will compare two different economic approaches: (a) determination of the optimal
number of effects by minimizing the total cost and, (b) maximization of the NPV, considering quality as an intrinsic parameter of the
modeled system.

2.2. Product quality

To reach the objective of the present research work, a quality
parameter must be considered to the mathematical model of the
evaporation system. The chosen parameter is lycopene, because,

490

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

as mentioned before, this carotenoid pigment is what gives tomatoes their characteristic color, and, in addition, it has some medical
benets.
Usually, degradation rates in sensitive food components are
modeled as a rst order kinetic, as follows:

r kY or

dY
kY
dt

The Arrhenius equation relates specic reaction rate constant to

temperature according to:



E
k k0  exp 
RT

The rst order kinetic for lycopene degradation has been conrmed by Goula and Adamopoulos (2006). In the same research
study an equation was obtained to determine the reaction rate in
the lycopene degradation, as a function of temperature and soluble
solids concentration X expressed in Brix.

For X  55; K 0:121238 exp0:0188X



2317
1
min
 exp 
T 273:15

ForX  55; k 0:275271 exp 0:00241X



2207
1
 exp 
min
T 273:15

system that must be solved (see Fig. 1 for a schematic representation of the system), operates on countercurrent and the total number of effects varies from 1 to n. The value of n and the
operating conditions will be determined at the end of this work
through the maximization of the NPV.
The total mass balance in evaporator effect i is:

dMi
F i1  Fvi  F i
dt

If the mass within the evaporator effect is controlled, then, under steady state, Eq. (5) can be written as:

0 F i1  Fvi  F i

In the same way, a mass balance for soluble solids at effect i, can
be written as:

dMi X i
F i1  X i1  F i  X i
dt

Under steady state condition:

0 F i1  X i1  F i  X i
3

The corresponding energy balance for the evaporator effect i, is:

dHi Mi
F i1  Hi1 Fvi1  Hvi1  F i  Hi  Fvi  Hvi  Fci  Hci Q p
dt
9
4

In our research study, the system to be modeled should consider tomato concentration in the range of 535 Brix, so only Eq.
(4) will be required.
2.3. Model development
The evaporation process involves mass and heat transfer (Himmelblau and Bischoff, 1968). The tomato juice was considered as a
binary solution of water and soluble solids, both considered inert
in a chemical sense. Under these considerations, one effect of the
industrial evaporator can be shown in the manuscript by Miranda
and Simpson, 2005.
So the macroscopic model is of the knowledge-type based on
conservation laws and also empirical relationships which describe
the equilibrium phases. These relationships have been rearranged
from non-linear algebraic equations from literature, with the experience taken from the experimental site. Only the juice phase is
considered for modeling.
The modeling assumptions are:
Homogenous composition and temperature inside each
evaporator.
Constant juice level in each evaporator.
Thermodynamic equilibrium (liquidvapor) for the whole modeled system.
The mathematical model developed in this research study included specic relationships for lycopene degradation. The general

Under steady state condition:

0 F i1  Hi1 Fvi1  Hvi1  F i  Hi  Fvi  Hvi  Fci  Hci Q p

10
The enthalpy of the tomato paste was estimated through the
specic heat (Cp), utilizing the following expression (Tonelli et
al., 1990):

Hi 4:184  2:9337  X i  T i

11

The following thermodynamic relationship describes the boiling point rise (BPR) or boiling point elevation (BPE), whose parameters have been determined experimentally, it is one of the three
important properties (specic heat, viscosity and boiling point
rise), that must be specied in a multiple effects evaporator (Rizvi
and Mittal, 1992). This property (BPR) is signicant at high soluble
solids concentration. On a multiple effect equipment, the effective
temperature differences decrease for the combination of boiling
point. The following correlation reported by Miranda and Simpson,
2005, was utilized.

Deb 0:175X 1:11 e3:86X P0:43

12

Vapor was considered saturated within the evaporator. The following correlations were obtained from Perry and Chilton (1973),
and allow for the estimation of vapor properties with an error of
less than 1%.
For 40 C < Tv < 70 C.

Tvi 32:5515  P0:2898

 17:7778
i

Fig. 1. Evaporation system of n effects operated in countercurrent.

13

491

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

For 70 C < Tv < 135 C.

Tvi 39:0514 

P0:2382
i

 17:7778

14

For 40 C < Tv < 135 C.

Hvi 2509:2888 1:6747  Tvi

15

Hci 4:1868  Tci

16

To estimate lycopene degradation (or retention) in each evaporator effects, a mass balance at effect i was carried out as follows:

F i1  X i1  Y i1  F i  X i  Y i M i



dX i Y i
dM i X i Y i

dt
dt

17

Assuming steady state, perfect mixing and rst order lycopene

degradation rate, the following expression is obtained.

F i1  X i1  Y i1  F i  X i  Y i  M i  X i  ki  Y i 0

18

From Eq. (21) two signicant terms can be distinguished total

investment (I); and annual benets (bj). Where the investment
for a given capacity can be expressed as a function of the number of effects (NE), and benets are related to the products unitprice (Pu) and costs per unit (Cu).

bj Q j P u  C u

Clearly, in food products, unit-price is not constant and it is directly related to the nal quality. As aforementioned, product quality is related to the number of effects (NE), in general with process
arrangement (PA) and operating conditions (OC). In addition, the
incidence of energy in unit-cost can be expressed as a function of
the number of effects (NE) and operating conditions (OC) too.
Therefore Eq. (21) can be expressed as a function of the numbers
of effects and operating conditions, as follows:

NPV IN E

Solving for Yi.

Yi

F i1  X i1  Y i1
F i  X i M i X i ki

19

F i1  X i1  Y i1
2207
F i  X i Mi  X i  0:275271  exp0:00241  X i  exp T 273:15

20
With the previous equation (Eq. (20)), lycopene concentration for
the output owrate in each evaporator effect can be estimated
knowing the steady state values, the mass inside each evaporator
effect and the lycopene concentration in the input owrate of each
evaporator effect. It is important to mention that when trying to
estimate lycopene concentration, a degree of freedom is added to
the system, which is satised with the data of lycopene concentration in the evaporator system input (feeding) owrate.

1 ij

!
n
X
Q j Pu N E  C u N E
dNPV
dINE
d


dN E
dNE
dNE j1
1 ij

Firstly, we shall do a simple and preliminary analysis to nd an

optimum number of effects when processing a food product. The
idea is to do a direct comparison between total cost minimization
and NPV maximization. As stated earlier, the focus of the economic
analysis will be the inclusion of quality as an intrinsic parameter of
the process design.
Generally, in the chemical industry, the quality of the product
to be concentrated on is associated with the nal concentration
of the product independent of equipment design and operating
conditions. It is for this reason, that the economic evaluation
and optimization of these processes have been based on a total
cost minimization. However, clearly, for food processes, product
quality is highly dependent on equipment design and operating
conditions.
In the particular case of tomato paste, the most important component together with the compliance of concentration and consistency is the nal content of lycopene in the product.
2.5. Maximization of NPV and minimization of total cost
A criterion to optimize process design is to determine the number of effects that shall maximize the NPV of the invested capital
for the new process line. This can be approached on the basis of
microeconomics.
Where, the following equation is the expression for NPV:

bj

j1

1 ij

24

Considering:

b1 b2    bn b Q  Pu NE  C u NE

25

Expressing the annual benets as a present value, the second

term of the right hand side of Eq. (21) can be reduced to:
n
X

bj
1 i

n
X
Q  Pu NE  CNE
j1

1 ij

K 0 Pu NE  C u NE

26

Therefore, replacing it in Eq. (24), we obtain:

2.4. Economic evaluation

n
X

23

For xed operating conditions, to nd the critical value for the

number of effects (NE for maximum NPV), it is necessary to derive
Eq. (23) and then equalize it to zero, so N E can be obtained (critical
value). On the other hand, critical value N E will represent a maximum for NPV if the second derivative is smaller than zero.

j1

NPV I

n
X
Q j Pu NE ; OC  C u N E ; OC
j1

Combining Eqs. (4) and (19) the following equation is obtained.

Yi

22

21

dNPV
dIN E
dPu N E  C u NE

K0
dN E
dNE
dNE

27

dNPV
dIN E
dPu N E
dC u NE

K0
 K0
dN E
dNE
dNE
dNE

28

In the case of a typical chemical engineering analyses, quality is

considered to be independent of the number of effects (NE). Meaning that the unit-price (Pu) is constant (independent of NE), therefore Eq. (28) can be expressed as:

dNPV
dIN E
dC u NE

 K0
dN E
dNE
dNE

29

By inspection of Eq. (29) it is clear that the maximum NPV value is

the same as the minimum total cost. This is the reason why, in most
chemical engineering analyses the search for the optimum process
is reduced to nd the minimum total cost. Quantication of NPV
and total cost was mainly due by literature references and some direct quotations (Maroulis and Maroulis, 2005; Peters et al., 2003).
In food processing, quality has a strong effect on product price
and, in addition, has a long term effect on the consumers perception of the food company. In this case, but also in general, the optimum process for a specic technology can be obtained by
implementing and managing Eq. (22).
3. Results and discussions
The mathematical model was developed for evaporator systems
from 1 to 7 effects, operated under countercurrent. In each system,

492

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

the restriction was equal areas for each evaporator effect. The input
values to the model, shown in Table 1, were the same for all of the
systems and obtained from an actual industrial plant, complemented with available online information from manufacturers.
3.1. Steady state conditions
From the mass and energy balance equations, liquidvapor
equilibrium equation and specic relations for the tomato paste,
a steady state model for the evaporator system was developed,
considering one up to seven effects. From this information, it is
possible to verify the decrease in vapor owrate necessary for
the operational process and an increase in the total system area,
when augmenting the number of effects (Fig. 2).
To have a more precise view of the product behavior in the
evaporation system, residence time and their respective temperatures, are presented in Table 2 for each one of the effects in the different systems.
3.2. Lycopene retention
Lycopene retention in the nal product was estimated for each
one of the alternative systems from the data obtained under steady
state operation. From the results shown in Fig. 3, it is clear that
lycopene concentration in the nal product has a linear decay
when augmenting the number of effects in the evaporation system.
The previous result gives a clue of how the content of lycopene in

Table 1
Input data for mathematical model implementation
Name

Variable

Value

Input owrate
Input temperature
Initial soluble solids
concentration
Input concentration
of lycopene
Final soluble solids
concentration
Steam inlet pressure
Temperature change
in condensator
Operation pressure in
evaporator n

FAl, kg/h
TAl, C
XAl, kg ss/kg

50,000
98
0.05

YAl, kg Lic/kg SS

0.01

X1, kg ss/kg

0.3

Pv0, kPa
Tvn  Td, C

143.4
2

Pn, kPa

16.5

the nal product is affected as a function of the residence time in

the evaporation system. While the number of effects increases in
the evaporation system, the total residence time increases as well
as the temperature at which the product is exposed, and, therefore,
there is also an increase of the lycopene degradation.
Lycopene retention for the theoretical evaporation system for
tomato paste are shown in Fig. 4. Clearly, lycopene retention decreases as the number of effects increase, which is justied by
the augmentation of the total residence time of the system and also
because of the temperature rise at which the tomato paste is exposed to. In regards to the supply owrate, there is an increase
in the lycopene retention when augmenting the owrate. The increase in lycopene retention is less abrupt when the supply owrate is over 100 ton/h.
3.3. Changes in processing capacity
To have a more precise idea of the effect of temperature and residence time effect on lycopene degradation process capacity was
set to different values in a specic range. This was done by maintaining the heat exchange area, and consequently, the number of
effects (a 5 effect lineup system was considered, as it is the number
that is regularly used in the tomato paste industry). Increasing the
processing capacity of the system, results in a increment of the
required energy, therefore steam inlet pressure Pv0 will also be
increased. This also implies a rise of temperature in the evaporators effects. As shown in Fig. 5, the required vapor owrate
increases proportionally to the evaporation system input owrate,
steam inlet pressure increases in a second order polynomial way.
Fig. 6 shows a decrease in the systems total residence time as well
as an increase in each evaporators temperature.
As it was expected, temperature inside each evaporator increases due to the augmentation of the system energy requirements. The systems residence time decreases because of the
increase of input owrate and the conservation of the holdup value. As it is observed in Fig. 7, there is an increase in lycopene
retention when augmenting the input owrate associated to the
products residence time which decreases in the evaporation system, with no regard to the increase of the evaporator temperature
increment.
This is of great importance, because it demonstrates that lycopene is not an obstacle to increase the processing capacity of the
evaporation system, therefore the maximum capacity will only

Fig. 2. Total transfer area m2 and steam inlet owrate ton/h vs. number of effects.

493

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

Table 2
Temperature data C and residence time h for systems from 1 to 7 effects with an input owrate of 50 ton/ha,b
Effect
number

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Number of effects in the system

1

Residence
time

Temp.

Residence
time

Temp.

Residence
time

Temp.

Residence
time

Temp.

Residence
time

Temp.

Residence
time

1.10

55.9

0.23
0.84

55.6
76.8

0.17
0.28
0.78

55.6
67.5
84.7

0.15
0.20
0.31
0.75

55.6
63.8
74.3
89.3

0.14
0.17
0.22
0.34
0.73

55.6
61.8
69.3
78.9
92.3

0.13
0.15
0.19
0.24
0.36
0.71

55.6
60.5
66.3
73.3
82.3
94.4

0.13
0.14
0.17
0.20
0.26
0.38
0.70

1 effect

Temp.

Output pressure at each effect

P1, kPa
16.5
P2, kPa
P3, kPa
P4, kPa
P5, kPa
P6, kPa
P7, kPa
b

Residence
time

2 effects

3 effects

4 effects

5 effects

6 effects

40.18
16.5

56.4
27.7
16.5

67.7
36.5
23.8
16.5

76.05
44.76
29.75
21.82
16.5

82.41
51.6
34.91
26.38
20.65
16.5

Feed enters effect 1.

Fresh vapor pressure: 143.4 kPa.

Fig. 3. Lycopene retention% vs. number of effects for an input of 50 ton/h.

Fig. 4. Lycopene retention% for a system from 1 to 7 effects.

Temp.
55.6
59.6
64.3
69.8
76.4
84.8
96.1
7 effects
87.5
57.31
40.15
30.32
24.28
19.86
16.5

494

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

Fig. 5. Changes in energy consumption represented by the vapor owrate kg/h and steam inlet pressure kPa as a function of the input owrate ton/h.

Fig. 6. Residence time (min) and temperature C as a function of the input owrate ton/h.

Fig. 7. Lycopene retention% as a function of the input owrate ton/h.

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

495

Fig. 8. Cost evaluation for an evaporator system with an input owrate of 50 ton/h.

be restricted by available vapor pressure, minimum specic holdup, pumps power among others.
3.4. Economic evaluation
The economic evaluation consists of determining the optimum
number of effects and operating conditions of the system. The economic evaluation of the system was done in two different ways.
Firstly, an economic evaluation with the concept of minimizing
the total costs, and secondly, an economic evaluation to maximize
the NPV taking into account the impact of the process design and
operating conditions on product quality.
3.5. Optimum number of effects
The economic evaluation was carried out by simple inspection.
This is where the steady state conditions for systems with 17 effects were found, and then total cost minimization and NPV maximization methodologies were used. The search was focused to
nd the number of effects that minimize the total cost and, in addition, to nd the number of effects that maximize the NPV.
The results for each evaluation systems are shown in Figs. 8
and 9. The total cost minimization (Fig. 8) shows an optimum of

4 effects. Nevertheless, when doing NPV maximization (Fig. 9),

the number of optimum effects was 3 due to the inclusion of the
quality parameter on the evaluation procedure. Naturally, for different processing capacities, the optimum number of effects varies
for both evaluation procedures. This is why differences are encountered in the optimum number of effects in some operation ranges.
In Fig. 10, the optimum number of effects is presented for different
operation ranges. As it is observed in Fig. 10, when evaluating the
evaporation system, including the quality parameter, in the range
of 25 ton/h through 50 ton/h, the optimum number of effects decreases, in comparison to the evaluation done based on total costs
only. This is explained with previous results where a decrease of
lycopene retention was a result of the increase of the number of effects. It is for this reason that the NPV maximization, in this particular case tends to be a lower number of effects.
3.6. Optimum operating conditions
In the search for the optimum operating conditions of evaporation system, the system was economically evaluated under a variable steam inlet pressure (Pv0) where the inclusion of lycopene as a
quality parameter was considered. As a constraint to the problem,
it was estimated that the output temperature of the tomato paste

Fig. 9. Net Present Value evaluation for evaporator systems with input ow of 50 ton/h.

496

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

Fig. 10. Optimum number of effects for different input ow rates ton/h according to total cost minimization and Net Present Value maximization.

Table 3
Optimum operating conditions

Heat transfer area, m2

Global heat transfer coefcient,
kJ/C/m2/h
Heat transferred, MJ/h
Boiling point raise, C
Holdup, kg
Residence time, h
DT Nukiyama

1st effect

2nd effect

3rd effect

209.6
4494.5

209.2
6767.2

209.1
8475.4

32803.8
0.53
5320
0.639
34.8

30941.1
0.07
4907
0.224
21.9

28727.7
0.03
4815
0.141
16.2

Steady state values

Steam inlet owrate, kg/h
Steam inlet pressure, kPa
Steam inlet temperature, C
Steam inlet enthalpy, kJ/kg

15012.9
260
129.1
2725.45

Output owrate, kg/h

Temperature, C
Concentration SS, kg/kg
Lycopene concentration, kg/kg SS
% Lycopene retention
Concentrate enthalpy, kJ/kg

8322.5
94.26
0.300
0.0096790
96.79%
311.3

21930.0
71.88
0.114
0.0099130
99.13%
276.7

34265.4
55.60
0.073
0.0099724
99.72%
220.7

Vapor
Vapor
Vapor
Vapor

owrate, kg/h
pressure, kPa
temperature, C
enthalpy, kJ/kg

13607.5
81.84
93.73
2666.3

12335.4
32.9
71.81
2629.6

15734.6
16.5
55.57
2602.4

Condensed owrate, kg/h

Condensation temperature, C
Condensed enthalpy, kJ/kg

15012.9
129.08
540.4

13607.46
93.7
392.4

12335.4
71.81
300.7

4. Conclusions

Table 4
Optimum number of effects for different steam inlet pressures
Pv0, kPa

110
120
130
140
150
160
170
200
230
260

(highest temperature), with the optimum number of effects for a

dened vapor pressure, could not be higher than 95 C. Results obtained shown an increase in the project protability when steam
inlet pressure is augmented. Optimum operating conditions, with
the previous stated constraints, is found to be a 3 effects system
with a steam inlet pressure of 260 kPa (see Table 3). This result differs from that obtained from the evaluation based on the total cost
minimization (5 effects system).
Table 4 depicts the results obtained by both economics ways;
total cost minimization and NPV maximization.

Number of optimum effects

Minimum total cost

Maximum NPV

4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
5

2
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3

The steady state values of the evaporator system were able to

be linked to the reaction kinetics of the target attribute, lycopene.
A mathematical model was successfully developed, and then an
economic evaluation of the optimum design and operating conditions of the evaporation system (17 effects operated under countercurrent) was carried out.
It was possible to determine that the lycopene retention has a
linear decay respect to the number of effects used in the evaporation system.
When analyzing the behavior of a 5 effect evaporator system, an
increase in the processing capacity from 50 ton/h to 75 ton/h augments the lycopene retention in the nal product from 95.25% to
96.27%.
The previous result is due to the decrease in residence time, and
independent of an increase in the evaporators temperature. This
result is important because it indicates that the increment in tomato paste production, in this particular case, is restricted only by
mechanical factors like available vapor pressure, maximum specied holdup, and pump power, etc.
The total cost minimization allows the determination of the
best equipment design (optimum number of effects), but no
information on operating conditions and product quality is obtained. On the other hand, with the NPV approach, it is possible
to optimize the system design and operating conditions simultaneously. In addition, the NPV approach considers the nal product
quality as an intrinsic parameter of the system.
With the inclusion of lycopene as a quality parameter (NPV), the
optimum number of effects decreases from 4 to 3 when compared
with total cost analysis. In addition, it was also possible to determine the optimum operating conditions of the 3 effects system
at 260 kPa.

R. Simpson et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 89 (2008) 488497

It appears of extreme relevance to consider quality as an intrinsic

and integral part of the process design, as it will then be possible to
identify several potential improvements in different food processes.
Acknowledgements
Author Ricardo Simpson is grateful for the nancial support
provided by CONICYT through the FONDECYT project number
1070946. Author Sergio Almonacid is grateful for the nancial support provided by CONICYT through the FONDECYT project number
1070512.
References
Douglas, J.M., 1988. Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes. Chemical
Engineering Series. McGraw-Hill International Editions.
Goula, A., Adamopoulos, K., 2006. Prediction of Lycopene degradation during a
drying process of tomato pulp. J. Food Eng. 74 (1), 3746.

497

Himmelblau, D.M., Bischoff, K.B., 1968. Process analysis and simulation:

deterministic system. Wiley, New York, USA.
Kern, D. 1999. Procesos de Transferencia de Calor. Editorial Continental S.A. Mexico.
Maroulis, A.Z., Maroulis, Z.B., 2005. Cost data analysis for the food industry. J. Food
Eng. 67 (3), 289299.
Miranda, V., Simpson, R., 2005. Modeling and simulation of an industrial multiple
effect evaporator: tomato concentrate. J. Food Eng. 66 (2), 203210.
Perry, J., Chilton, C., 1973. Chemical Engineers Handbook. Editorial Mc Graw-Hill,
USA.
Peters, M., Timmerhaus, K., West, R., 2003. Plant Design and Economics for Chemical
Engineers. Editorial Mc Graw-Hill, USA.
Rizvi S.H., Mittal G.S. 1992. In: Van Nostrand Reinhold (Ed.), Experimental Methods
in Food Engineering..
Schoorl, D., Holt, J.E., 1983. An analysis of the effect of quality on prices of
horticultural procedure. Agricultural Systems 12 (2), 7599.
Shi, J., Qu, Q., Kakuda, Y., Jun, S., Jiang, Y., Koide, S., Shim, Y., 2007. Investigation of
the antioxidant and synergistic activity of Lycopene and other natural
antioxidants using LAME and AMVN model systems. J. Food Compos. Anal. 20
(7), 603608.
Tonelli, M., Romagnoli, J., Porras, J., 1990. Computer package for transient analysis of
industrial multiple-effect evaporators. J. Food Eng. 12 (4), 267281.
USDA, 2007. Tomatoes and Tomato Products. World Markets and Trade.