Simulation models for food separation by adsorption process

Separation of simulated industrial food products, by method of adsorption, has been studied. A thermodynamic approach has been applied to study the liquid adsorption where benzene and cyclohexane have been used to simulate edible oils in a system that employs silica gel as the adsorbent. Different models suggested in the literature have been tested with experimental data in order to characterize properties of the system, such as the tendency to ideality, for both adsorbed and bulk liquid phases. The methods of determining thermodynamic properties such as free energy of adsorption, adsorption capacity and activity coefficients in the adsorbed phase have been studied. It was observed that a model based on the assumption that adsorbed phase, but not liquid phase, is ideal gave a good for that may suffice for engineering design of liquid adsorption systems that may be applied in food processing, such as decolourising crude sugar syrup, recovery of polypeptides and extraction of flavouring. The Journal of Food Technology in Africa Volume 6 Number 2 (April-June 2001), pp. 63-67 KEY WORDS: Separation, food, model, adsorption, simulation and surface excess.