What are the applications of surfactants in sugar factories?

2022-06-27 08:56:30

A. Sucrose fatty acid ester defoamer sucrose fatty acid ester is an internationally recognized food additive with good safety. It can be used as food emulsifier and sugar cooking assistant. Several domestic enterprises have produced such products. As a defoamer, it has been used in recent years. The products of different companies are different. First of all, in terms of production process, some use solvent method, some use microemulsion method, and some use solvent-free one-step method. In addition, the main raw materials of sucrose esters are oil and sucrose. Due to the use of different oils, such as hardened oil, beef and sheep oil, soybean oil, palm oil and peanut oil, and the selection of different sugar oil ratio, the product performance is different. As a defoamer, each product has different characteristics. The products of some enterprises were originally developed as food emulsifiers. As defoamers, it is necessary to improve their performance. The key problem is to adjust the hydrophilicity and lipophilicity.

B. Polyglycerol fatty acid ester is also a safe and non-toxic food additive. It is very important to adjust the HLB value of the product for sugar making defoamer. The experimental factory of the former Daily Chemical Institute of the Ministry of light industry has tested the effect of the product on alcohol fermentation. The results show that the dosage far exceeds the required amount, and has no effect on the growth of yeast. This is undoubtedly a preferred product for sugar factories that use waste molasses to produce alcohol. At the same time, polyglycerol fatty acid ester is also an excellent sugar cooking aid, which can shorten the sugar cooking time, with obvious effect, and is conducive to energy saving and efficiency increase in sugar factories.

C. Polyether defoamers are also used in sugar factories. The structure and performance of the products of various manufacturers are also different. Some products are only general polyoxyethylene polyoxypropylene block copolymers, and some products are modified on the basis of their copolymerization, such as alkylation. This kind of defoamer should have good defoaming performance. During production, it is generally necessary to adjust the polymerization degree and molar ratio of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, and connect propylene oxide to the end of the polymerization chain. Polyether defoamers have very good foam inhibition, but their foam breaking ability is slightly worse. It is better to use the method of pre dropping in the feed liquid, and do not take measures until the foam rises very high.

D. Organosilicon defoamer organosilicon defoamer has low surface tension, good chemical inertia, low solubility in medium and fast defoaming. It is a kind of potential defoamer. At present, it is more and more widely used in many industries, and has also received certain attention in the sugar industry. The products used in sugar factories are generally lotion products. This kind of emulsified silicone oil defoamer has good defoaming effect. It is not just to emulsify silicone oil with emulsifier, but also to add some other ingredients. In addition, it is reported that organosilicon has a certain inhibitory effect on yeast culture, which requires caution for manufacturers using waste molasses to produce alcohol. At present, some researchers are committed to the modification of silicone defoamer, trying to solve some of its problems and make its performance more perfect.

E. Products compounded with a variety of defoamers or additives. These products are compounded with a variety of defoamers or additives, which is intended to learn from each other's strong points to complement each other's weaknesses and increase efficiency, so as to make the advantages of the products more comprehensive. Some products in the market combine a variety of surfactants to give full play to their better defoaming and foam inhibition properties. Some products combine or modify some surfactants with silicone oil or other hydrophobic groups (not just emulsification) to eliminate some of their respective adverse factors and have better performance. For example, the tng-2 defoamer produced by the experimental factory of the daily chemical Institute of the former Ministry of light industry is a reasonable combination of sucrose fatty acid ester and silicone oil products and other additives, which not only improves the defoaming performance of the original tng-1 product, but also improves the service performance of the product, and defoaming is fast and convenient. In addition, the n-type defoamer introduced by the Sugarcane Research Institute of the light industry association is a compound of ng-7 type defoamer (polyglycerol fatty acid ester) and other non-ionic surfactants.

F. Natural vegetable oil products soybean oil is the main product still in use. Although this is a traditional defoaming agent that has been continued, with poor defoaming effect and large dosage, it is still used by a few sugar factories because it is a pure natural product with good safety. In addition, some sugar factories have favorable factors such as local materials or comprehensive utilization.

3) The defoaming mechanism of defoaming agent for sugar making has two main factors: one is that the medium has surface activity (low surface tension) - playing a foaming role; One is the strong surface facial mask viscosity and solution viscosity, which can play a role in stabilizing bubbles.

If there is a bubble, it cannot be stabilized, and the bubble disappears immediately. In this case, there is no need to eliminate the bubble; No bubble, no bubble stability, no bubble elimination. In the actual sugar production of sugarcane, the processes that need to add defoamer generally include neutralization tank, clear juice tank, syrup tank, evaporation tank and crystallization tank. Because the sugar juice has gone through the separation processes of filtration, flocculation and sedimentation, the impurities in the sugar juice are gradually reduced, but the viscosity of the sugar juice is getting larger and larger. That is to say, in the early stage of production, there are many impurities and high surface activity in the sugar solution. In the late stage of production, the viscosity of the sugar solution is high and the surface facial mask is not easy to break. It should also be pointed out that the foam of the neutralization tank is relatively strong, because alkaline substances are added, and it is easy to produce foam when neutralizing with some acidic substances in the sugar solution. At the same time, some soap substances are generated, which also enhance the surfactant of the sugar solution.