Simulation of autoclaving to optimize energy costs of food industry enterprises

Abstract

One of the factors determining the quality of the cans and primarily the meat cans is the heat treatment, the process which is the most significant regarding the energy demands of an enterprise. A heat treating cycle can be divided into three phases: heating up, holding, chilling. Steam is used typically to achieve the necessary temperature and water is used for chilling. There are different regulations on temperatures and time of heat holding for each product so the duration of the heat treatment depends on the product. When operating more autoclave simultaneously certain phases of the process can overlap thus the steam and water demand can develop with big fluctuation. The availability of these resources is limited or they are accessible by extra costs. Hence it is practical to coordinate the operation of the different autoclaves in the interest of thrift. We have developed a decision support system in Microsoft Excel environment and the database needed for the model. We have also created a user friendly interface and the Visual Basic for Application software providing the timing and simulation.