Patent Application
20140352687
The present disclosure relates to the field of maple syrup production. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a hyper concentrator system for maple sap.
Producing maple syrup involves boiling huge quantities of maple sap. This, of course requires a lot of heat.
Nanofiltration has been used for some times to increase the percentage of sugar (Brix) of maple sap prior to its boiling. An example of a system using nanofiltration to produce maple syrup from maple sap is described in Patent Application Publication US 2011/0220564A1, “Reverse Osmosis for Maple Sap” to Denis Côté, Sep. 15, 2011, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. As another example,
Though the nanofiltration system 20 increases the Brix level of the maple sap, there is still a large amount of water in the concentrate 201. Large amounts of energy are still required to obtain a final product in the evaporator 402. In most cases, heat is obtained by burning wood, oil or similar combustible material, which creates significant pollution.
With the increased awareness of the cost of energy and pollution, there is a need for a more efficient way of obtaining maple syrup.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided a hyper concentrator system having two concentration modules. A first concentration module operates at a first pressure. It receives a liquid having a first Brix level and produces a first concentrate having an intermediate Brix level greater than the first Brix level. A second concentration module operates at a second pressure greater than the first pressure. The second concentration module receives the first concentrate and produces a second concentrate having a high Brix level greater than the intermediate Brix level.
The foregoing and other features will become more apparent upon reading of the following non-restrictive description of illustrative embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Embodiments of the disclosure will be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
a,
1
b and 1c (collectively
a, 2b, 2c and 2d (collectively
a, 3b, 3c and 3d (collectively
a, 4b, 4c and 4d (collectively
a, 5b, 5c and 5d (collectively
Like numerals represent like features on the various drawings. Connectors a to z as well as α, β, γ and δ express how elements of the various drawings interconnect and do not represent any functional element.
Various aspects of the present disclosure generally address one or more of the problems related to energy cost and pollution related to the production of maple syrup.
The disclosed hyper concentrator system uses two concentration modules, or stages to concentrate maple sap to a high Brix level before using evaporation to produce maple syrup. Use of the hyper concentrator system is not limited to maple syrup production. The hyper concentrator system may also be used in other context such as in the production of sweet solutions from sugar cane, sweet sorghum, sugar beet, and the like. The following description makes reference to maple syrup production for ease of illustration, without limiting the present disclosure.
Referring now to the drawings,
The first concentration module 120 includes a strainer 175, a feed pump 112, a bank of filters 116a, for example 5-micron filters, one more pressure pumps 114, one or more recirculation pumps 124, one or more filtering modules 125, two flow meters 105 and 106 and a throttling device, for example a throttle valve 107. In one aspect, the pressure pumps 114, the recirculation pumps 124 and the filtering modules 125 may be similar to the pressure pump, recirculation pumps and filtering modules of
The second concentration module 301 may also be a reverse osmosis filter. It includes a strainer 375, a feed pump 312, for example a positive displacement pump such as a piston pump, a bank of filters 316, for example 5-micron filters, one more pressure pumps 314, which may for example comprise centrifugal pumps, one or more recirculation pumps 324, one or more filtering modules 325, two flow meters 305 and 306 and a throttle valve 307 or any other throttling device.
In the embodiment of
Rather than being immediately fed to an evaporator, the concentrate 201 is fed to the second concentration module 301. The reverse osmosis system 301 may operate at a high pressure sufficient to compensate for the osmotic pressure, for example about 1000 psi or up to 1200 psi or more. The pressure pumps 314, the recirculation pumps 324 and the filtering modules 325 are rated to withstand this operating pressure. The high operating pressure of the second concentration module 301 allows reversal of the natural osmosis of the about 22° Brix concentrate 201 to provide a hyper concentrate 216 in a 35 to 45° Brix range, for example about 44° Brix. Conventional nanofiltration and reverse osmosis system used to produce maple syrup or similar products operate at much lower pressure levels and produce concentrates at much lower Brix levels.
A pressure of the about 44° Brix hyper concentrate 216 is reduced to 0 psi by the throttle valve 307. The 44° Brix hyper concentrate 216 is then fed to an additional concentrate tank 330 and further to an evaporator 405 in which maple syrup at about 67° Brix is produced. Because it receives a highly concentrated maple sap, the evaporator 405 may be simpler, less bulky and more economical than the bulky, ridged pan evaporator 402 of
A pressure of a second 0° Brix permeate 350 is also reduced to 0 psi by the filtering modules 325. The permeate 350 is then fed to the permeate tank 146, from which the permeate 350 may be disposed.
It will be observed that the second embodiment of
It will also be observed that the conventional maple sap concentrator of
Variants of either embodiments of the hyper concentrator system may produce syrup without using any evaporator. However, use of the evaporator 405 is instrumental in giving the maple syrup its particular taste.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the description of the hyper concentrator system for maple sap are illustrative only and are not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to such persons with ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the disclosed hyper concentrator system for maple sap may be customized to offer valuable solutions to existing needs and problems of energy cost and pollution related to the production of maple syrup.
In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations of hyper concentrator system for maple sap are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation of the hyper concentrator system for maple sap, numerous implementation-specific decisions may need to be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application-related and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the field of maple syrup production having the benefit of the present disclosure.
Although the present disclosure has been described hereinabove by way of non-restrictive, illustrative embodiments thereof, these embodiments may be modified at will within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and nature of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1309813.2 | May 2013 | GB | national |
