Substantiation of parameters of the filtering process during clarification of kombucha beverage

In the production of fermented beverages made for the trade network, low temperatures without mixing can be used to reduce the number of microorganisms in finished products, which promotes yeast sedimentation.At the same time, sedimentation hardly reduces the number of bacteria.The long sedimentation process in production is replaced by filtration.The study aims to substantiate the rational operation modes of a filter with cardboard filter elements measuring 200200 mm for clarifying a fermented beverage such as Kombucha.The research was carried out using physical (production experiment) and computational modeling methods in the Solid Works, Flow Simulation application.The expedient duration of the filtration process and the quality of the clarified beverage significantly depend on the pore size of the filtration carton.When using the Colombo 18 filter, the recommended pore size of the filter carton is 10 microns.Under these conditions, the quality of the beverage does not change, and it is possible to preserve its marketable condition and extend its storage period.The filter productivity, determined by the volumetric method, changes slightly, by 18.7%, within 1.5 hours of operation, then decreases sharply from 12.2 to 3.4 l/min.With further filtering of the beverage, up to 120 minutes or more, the filter productivity decreases by more than half, which leads to irrational energy consumption.During the period of effective filtering, approximately 500...600 liters of filtered beverage are obtained.As the particles move towards the outlet, their number decreases significantly to 12% of the initial content.At a distance of approximately 80 mm from the filter element inlet, the density and thus the content of the dispersed phase stabilizes at a minimum level.The results of the computational experiment confirm the results of physical modeling regarding filter productivity.The deviation from the values obtained in production does not exceed 2.7%.