SELECTION OF TECHNOLOGIES FOR A COMBINED ASSORTMENT PLANT OF MANIHOT ESCULENTA CRANTZ (CASSAVA)

Abstract

Introduction:
Taking into account the potential, advantages and demands of the industrial cassava treatment processes and the need to reduce the mechanical complexity of the equipment, so that it can be built totally or partially in Cuba, it is necessary to design adequate facilities for this process.
Objective:
To select the technologies required for a combined assortment plant with probable installation at the Tropical Viand Research Institute (INIVIT), with a semi-mechanized nature and with a low degree of separation of the starch present in the fiber, treating the latter and allocating it to the animal feeding.
Materials and Methods:
The selection of technological equipment and flow and operation sequences was carried out by combining the individual processes in a semi-mechanized scheme with a multipurpose approach for the production of cassava, flour and native starch.
Results and Discussion:
The flow diagram was proposed and the main characteristics of the equipment, processes and their interconnections were described. The main peculiarities are given in the common dry crushing, the washing and filtering of the starch in a trommel and its sedimentation in tunnels or tanks, which replaces mechanically complex equipment in the mechanized process of native starch. This sequence causes low level separation of starch into fiber, but dries the starch-rich fiber into additional assortment.
Conclusions:
The proposal allows having a multipurpose scheme for obtaining combined assortments of cassava by semi-mechanized means that has been used for the rest of the design stages of the process.