Effect of flow characteristics on online sterilization of cheese whey in UV reactors

An ultraviolet (UV) coil reactor was designed and used for the online sterilization of cheese whey. Its microbial destruction efficiency was compared to that of the conventionally used UV reactor. Both reactors have the same geometry (840 ml volume and 17 mm gap size) and were tested at 11 flow rates of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, and 70 ml/min. The results obtained from this study showed that despite of its high turbidity, cheese whey could be sterilized using UV radiation if the proper reactor design and flow rate are used. The performances of the UV reactors were governed by the flow rate and the hydraulics of flow inside the reactor. The flow was laminar in both the reactors, as the Reynolds number was in the range of 1.39-20.10. The phenomenon of Dean Flow was observed in the coil reactor and the Dean number was in the range of 1.09-15.41. Dean vortices resulted in higher microbial destruction efficiency in the coil reactor in a shorter retention time. The rate of microbial destruction was found to be exponential in the conventional reactor and polynomial in the coil reactor. Increasing the flow rate from 5 ml/min to 70 ml/min decreased the microbial destruction efficiency of the conventional reactor from 99.40 to 31.58%, while the microbial destruction efficiency in the coil reactor increased from 60.77% at the flow rate of 5 ml/min to 99.98% at the flow rate of 30 ml/min and then decreased with further increases in flow rate reaching 46.2% at the flow rate of 70 ml/min. The maximum effluent temperatures in the conventional and coil reactors were 45.8 and 46.1 degrees C, respectively. Fouling in the coil reactor was significantly less compared to the conventional reactor. The extent of fouling was influenced by flow rate and reactor's hydraulics.