Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.27, No.5, 569-577, 2004
Simulation of an acid-based starch converter
A mathematical model is proposed to simulate the starch converter. The converter was hydrodynamically divided into six zones and material and energy balances were established in each zone. Due to the fact that the converter is a laminar flow reactor, it was necessary to apply the equation oriented simulation approach to simulate the converter. Therefore, four partial differential equations were solved together by finite difference in each section. Thermophysical properties of the corresponding fluid were calculated by using various correlations and data from the literature. In order to predict accurate concentrations of glucose, the kinetics was determined with the aid of the data in the literature. A set of actual plant data from the industrial converter is used to validate the proposed model. The agreement between the model prediction and the experimental data is quite satisfactory and the model could be used to predict the performance of industrial converters at a wide range of operating conditions.