Diseño de un proceso industrial para la obtención de jarabe de suero a partir de residuos lácteos.

Abstract

The objective was to design an industrial process for obtaining serum syrup from dairy waste, to take advantage of all the nutrients present in this dairy byproduct, which gives aggregate value to this substance and, in turn, reduce the impacts generated to the environment as much as possible. Serum syrup was obtained through a hydrolysis reaction with the enzyme: ß -galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis and the addition of inputs and laboratory scale additives and then, it was validated on a pilot scale in a 10-liter capacity pot. The reaction conditions were 1 hour at 40 ° C and pH 6.4 with constant stirring. The whey complied from the physicochemical and bacteriological point of view to be used as raw material in the production of the serum syrup and it had acceptance in a sample of consumers. The laboratory-level process could be validated on a pilot scale, obtaining similar results in both cases, the parameters to be controlled were temperature, agitation, substrate and enzyme amount and quality, pH and reaction time. The process proposed on an industrial scale consisted of a filter, a pot, a boiler, a storage tank, and a packer-capper. The properties of the obtained syrup show certain variations with respect to the one commercialized in Ecuador, which can be adjusted by concentrating the final product. Mass and energy balances were made for the design of the kettle. The cost-benefit of the project of serum syrup production from the whey is highly profitable, recovering the investment of the equipment procurement in the first year of operation. It should be ensured that the raw material, inputs and additives are in optimum quality and verify the characteristics of the enzyme used in case it is substituted for establishing the new reaction parameters (reaction time, pH and temperature).