Explain the working principle of Elusieve process.
Working principle for Elusieve process is similar to separating chaff from wheat. Air is blown through DDGS to separate fiber. When air was blown through whole DDGS, fiber was separated; but, the fiber obtained was not pure. Air carried nonfiber along with fiber. Further study revealed that it was small sized nonfiber that was accompanying the large sized fiber. Simplest solution: sieve the DDGS into different sizes and then blow air through each size fraction to separate out pure fiber (see video). Elusieve process was found to be effective in separating fiber from commercial DDGS samples (refer manuscript) and also from corn flour (refer manuscript). This combination of sieving and air classification (elutriation) is called “Elusieve” process.
Why the name “Elusieve” process? Elusieve – the combination of elutriation (air flow) and sieving.
Elutriation – isn’t it the same as air classification or aspiration? Yes, it is a specific type of air classification. But, elutriation differs slightly from aspiration in definition. Aspiration is air flow created by suction. In this work, a blower (NOT suction) was used in lab scale development for producing air flow and hence the term elutriation is used. Aspiration is being used in pilot scale operation.
So simple, eh! Why didn’t anybody invent the Elusieve process earlier? There were two independent efforts: sieving (Wu et al 1980) and air classification (Singh et al 2002) for fiber separation from DDGS. Perhaps it did not strike researchers prior to this effort that the combination of the two (sieving and air classification) may be effective!
Can I first elutriate and then sieve instead of sieving and then elutriating? You can. But, this would require more equipment and have operational problems compared to sieving and then elutriating.
Why the name “Elusieve” process? Elusieve – the combination of elutriation (air flow) and sieving.
Elutriation – isn’t it the same as air classification or aspiration? Yes, it is a specific type of air classification. But, elutriation differs slightly from aspiration in definition. Aspiration is air flow created by suction. In this work, a blower (NOT suction) was used in lab scale development for producing air flow and hence the term elutriation is used. Aspiration is being used in pilot scale operation.
So simple, eh! Why didn’t anybody invent the Elusieve process earlier? There were two independent efforts: sieving (Wu et al 1980) and air classification (Singh et al 2002) for fiber separation from DDGS. Perhaps it did not strike researchers prior to this effort that the combination of the two (sieving and air classification) may be effective!
Can I first elutriate and then sieve instead of sieving and then elutriating? You can. But, this would require more equipment and have operational problems compared to sieving and then elutriating.