Orange Juice

Orange Juice

Glass of orange juice with orange slice and straw

Orange, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine and other citrus juices are beverages and food ingredients produced by extracting liquid from the fruit. They may be concentrated and frozen to aid transport and storage, then rehydrated at the point of use.

Key pumping issues with citrus juices are the acidic nature (e.g. lemon juice pH 2 to 3, orange juice pH 3.5 to 4); the difficulty in shaft sealing due to sugars (64-66 brix); the need to gently handle the inclusion of fruit cells in juices where maintaining pulp is desired; the moderately high viscosity, which ranges from 15 cPs for clarified juice to 164 cPs for concentrate; and the need to clean pumps and systems regularly to maintain hygiene.

Hygienic positive displacement pumps handle all of these issues with ease. The alloy materials easily withstand the low pH; a variety of hygienic shaft seals and seal plans are available to minimize abrasive wear from sugars; relatively slow pump speed with large fluid cavities protect sensitive pulps; and they handle viscosities much higher than that of the concentrated juices. Hygiene compliance is assured through meeting hygienic standards like 3-A, ease of integration with CIP/SIP systems or strip-cleaning, and documentation support.

    Viking in the Process

    Viking hygienic pumps are used in citrus juice processing beginning at juice extraction, pumping raw juice through filtration to evaporators for concentration or directly to pasteurization, then to packaging. Concentrated juice is pumped either to blending tanks for reconstitution, pasteurization and packaging or to heat exchangers for freezing and packaging.

      Applications

      • Raw juice and clarified juice transfer
      • Concentrate transfer
      • Additive metering (e.g. sweeteners)

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