China's first large-scale continuous food freeze-drying device was successfully developed

The large-scale continuous food freeze-drying device is a high-tech product with independent intellectual property rights developed by the scientific and technical personnel of Shenyang Ice-day Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd. for nearly two years, completely relying on independent innovation capabilities. This not only provides China's food industry with reliable and important technical equipment, but also has important significance for improving the deep processing rate of China's agricultural and sideline products and developing freeze-dried foods. The successful development of this device marks the beginning of a continuous new era for food lyophilization processing technology in China, thus ending the history of non-large continuous food freeze-drying devices in China.
According to authoritative experts' assessment, the device has a rectangular warehouse structure with isolated compartments at both ends, which can be operated both continuously and intermittently. Multiple heating temperature zones are provided; the automatic weighing system can accurately determine the degree of drying of the materials; The system and the continuous ice-melting system are unique in concept, rational in design, compact in structure, novel in design, and energy-saving.” “It is the first in the country and there is no precedent in the world, and it has reached the leading domestic and international advanced level.” Experts believe that the device “adapts to China’s agriculture. The need for deep processing and development of by-products is in line with national conditions and should be vigorously promoted."
Through more than ten production tests, the DG3 large-scale continuous-type food freeze-drying device has a reliable and successful productive operation. It has acquired a number of important technical parameters and experience, with its superior quality and continuous intermittent use of excellent performance in the same industry at home and abroad. It is unique. Various technological innovations have achieved major breakthroughs:
·Continuous operation is used in mass production, intermittent operation is used for production of small batches and varieties, and switching is easy, one machine is more used, and the applicability is strong.
· Automatic weighing system to accurately determine the food drying time and degree of drying, effectively prevent the short drying time due to high food moisture content or unqualified or due to long drying time and high energy consumption.
·Adopting several adjustable temperature bands is suitable for continuous operation. The use of a temperature zone is suitable for intermittent operation. It can not only dry solid foods, but also can dry pulpy foods. The heating temperature is particularly uniform and the qualified rate of genuine products is high.
Continuous operation eliminates the need for intermittent operation and shut down of loading and unloading materials, breaking of air, melting ice, cooling, secondary heating, refrigeration, and vacuum, resulting in high equipment utilization. Compared with intermittent type, the installed power is 21%～30% lower, the supporting cold capacity is 40% lower, and the unit energy consumption is lower than 25%. The production capacity is 1.2 to 1.5 times that of batch type.
· Abolished the traditional complex rail structure, the use of ground transportation, simple structure, flexible and convenient operation.
· Rectangular bin structure is equipped with isolation bins and access passages. The material enters from one end and exits from the other end, and is transported in a straight line, which is conducive to the layout of the workshop and avoids cross-contamination at the same time.
• The control system operates reliably and has a fault monitoring system and a backup system to improve the reliability of the device operation.
• The external continuous or built-in water vapor condenser alternately continuously melts the ice to ensure continuous operation of the device. The water vapor condenser is always in a highly efficient heat exchange state, with strong water catching ability and high product sublimation rate.
The so-called food freeze-drying, that is, the food is first frozen to -18 °C, and then under the set vacuum and heating conditions, the ice crystals directly sublimation into ice steam, remove the internal water content of the food, so as to obtain high-quality dried products. Lyophilized foods processed by this method have good reconstitution and fast rehydration. Whether cold water or hot water can quickly rehydrate the food, that is, through the reversible cycle of the dehydration process to restore the product to its original state, not for any drying method.
China is a large agricultural country. With the development of planting and aquaculture, the output and varieties of agricultural products have been increasing year by year. In particular, the output of aquatic products, meat and poultry, fruits and vegetables has ranked among the top in the world. The deep processing rate of agricultural and sideline products in developed countries is generally above 70%. Some countries are as high as 92%, while China is only about 20%. This means that developed countries have doubled their agricultural output value to twice. Therefore, China still lags behind developed countries in food processing.
With the increasingly perfect freeze-drying technology, the cost of freeze-dried foods is further reduced. Freeze-dried foods are accepted by people because of their high quality and high added value, and occupy a certain percentage in the international market. In 1999, foreign merchants purchased freeze-dried foods in China (RMB yuan/kg dry goods): beef 130, mutton 180, carrot 130, green onion 140, lotus sauce 240, spinach 160, coriander 200, mushroom slice 260, onion 130, green Pepper 190, red pepper 210, garlic slice 65 to 100, garlic Taiwan 130, lily 200. Purchase price in 2002: strawberry 300, strawberry powder 320.
According to statistics, by 2010 China's instant noodles will require approximately 40,000 tons of instant noodles, plus demand for fast food, distribution, soup, beverage and field work, military, tourism, adventure, aerospace, children's food, and health foods. Its demand will increase substantially, providing a broad market for the promotion and popularization of freeze-dried foods.
Therefore, the development of freeze-dried food market is bound to create a good opportunity for food freeze-drying devices. It is predicted that by 2010, China's annual demand for freeze-drying area of ​​about 4000m2, according to the price of 485 million per set, the total output value of up to 900 million yuan, there will be considerable economic benefits.
In summary, the successful development of the DG3 large-scale continuous food freeze-drying device is just the beginning and it is a continuous first step. The device also requires us to seriously study, explore, improve, we also need to learn from domestic and foreign advanced technology, give full play to the ability of independent innovation, continue to develop new products in line with China's national conditions, to create brand-name products with independent intellectual property rights.