The blended fruit juice beverage needs to be sterilized before filling, and thermal sterilization is a common process. According to different product characteristics, subsequent matching filling processes, and shelf life, ultra-high temperature instantaneous sterilization (UHT) or high-temperature short-term sterilization (HTST) can be selected. UHT usually refers to maintaining a temperature above 130 ℃ for several seconds, while a typical process for HTST is to maintain a temperature of 95 ℃ for 30 seconds. Regardless of the process used, the structure and working principle of both are similar, with heating and temperature maintenance functions.
The forms of heat exchangers include plate type, tube type, corrugated tube type, etc. For products containing pulp particles or high viscosity, a tubular heat exchanger must be used to prevent clogging. At the same time, the pressure bearing capacity of tubular heat exchangers is stronger, but the manufacturing cost is higher than that of plate heat exchangers.
For cloudy juice drinks or juice drinks containing milk, we recommend tubular UHT; For clear juice beverages, plate heat exchangers can be used.
The main components of UHT/HTST units include steam heating unit (steam heat exchanger and valve group), superheated water unit (hot water tank), a set of multi-stage heat exchangers, holding pipes, product pumps, hot water pumps, balance tanks, racks, and pipelines.