Optimization of Design Heat Exchanger to Reduce Fouling Resistance in Milk Pasteurization

Milk pasteurization process used Heat Exchanger (HE) to heat fresh milk at certain temperature and time period. Fouling in heat exchanger during milk pasteurization has been identified as a major problem in the efficiency of energy. Due to insufficient temperature during process, foodborne pathogens may not be killed properly and contaminate the food which make the human health adverse. Other problems may arise in fouling which is losing the efficiency during operation, increasing cost of pumping and downtime that affecting the efficiency of production cost. The fouling resistance depends on milk properties, heat exchanger design technologies and actual operating conditions. The objective of this research was to optimize the heat exchanger design of milk pasteurization by considering series-parallel connection to minimize fouling. The research method was using recent stochastic algorithms Duelist Algorithm, Killer-Whale Algorithm and Rain-Water Algorithm for fouling mitigation in milk pasteurization. The optimization results show the series-series connection reduce fouling up to 16% at the tube side (Rft) and reduce up to 5% at shell side.