Application Of Refrigeration Technologies For Energy Efficient Production Of Fish Protein Hydrolysates

Abstract

Fish protein hydrolysate (FPH) is one of the most efficient and sustainable way to recover the valuable nutrients from fish remaining materials and has a widespread application. However, the production of FPH demands intensive heating and cooling loads in the temperature range between 0 and 90 ⁰C. In addition, the stabilization of FPH using conventional moisture removal techniques like spray drying and evaporators is energy intensive due to low solid content. This study investigates application of refrigeration technologies and heat pumps to determine sustainable and energy efficient methods for processing and stabilization of FPH. The freeze concentration, vacuum-concentration and freeze-drying processes were investigated in combination with energy recovery at high temperatures (heating and sterilization). The overall comparison of production lines with respect to the energy savings of different techniques was presented.