Abstract:
The heat transfer is a very important factor during the processing and storage of many food and agricultural products.
The specific heat is one of the important thermal properties for food industry to calculate the amount of heat applied
along the food processing chain. The main objective of this study was to determine the specific heat using newly
designed simple heat exchanger and to develop mathematical relationship between spegfic heat and dry matter
percentage of liquid food product. Simple heat exchanger was designed to measure the specific heat in laboratory
condition. Sugar solution, milk and papaya pulp with different concentrations were selected as liquid food product for
the experiment. The prepared solutions were heated up to 80 - 90 °C temperature and were sent through the heat
exchanger and water supply was done through outer tube of the heat exchanger with counter flow direction. Data
were recorded after getting the continuous flow through heat exchanger. This experiment was conducted 20 times for
each liquid concentration to obtain accurate results. Finally specific heat and dry matter percentage were recorded
and the equations were developed for each product. According to the results there was a strong negative correlation
between specific heat and concentration of specific food product. The newly designed device can be used for
determination the specific heat of liquid food products.
