Recovering water

Abstract

A method of recovering palatable potable storable water from a process for concentrating an extracted juice, the method including the steps of: providing the extracted juice; concentrating the extracted juice to form a concentrated juice stream and a concentrator waste stream, wherein the concentrator waste stream is not palatable, potable or storable; and purifying the concentrator waste stream to provide palatable potable storable water including the step of passing the concentrator waste stream through activated carbon.

Claims

1. A method for producing a beverage, the method comprising the steps of: providing a fruit or a vegetable or a sugar cane; treating the fruit or the vegetable or the sugar cane to release or expose the internal constituents to provide a juice; passing the juice through a concentrator to provide a juice concentrate and a concentrator waste stream, the concentrator waste stream comprising a fermentable sugar; purifying the concentrator waste stream through a size exclusion process configured to exclude a fermentable sugar to provide a sugar-depleted intermediate; and filtering the sugar-depleted intermediate through activated carbon to provide a beverage; wherein the juice is passed directly to the concentrator and without passing through an intermediate processing step, and the concentrator waste stream is passed directly to the size exclusion process and without passing through an intermediate processing step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are carried out in the order recited.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the concentrator is an evaporative concentrator.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the evaporative concentrator is a commercial evaporative juice concentrator.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the commercial evaporative juice concentrator requires heating of the juice.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the commercial evaporative juice concentrator is configured to evaporate under conditions of vacuum.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the evaporative concentrator is configured to keep separate the concentrator waste stream and any external water.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the concentrator waste stream is a condensate of an evaporative concentrator.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the concentrator waste stream has a sugar content of greater than about 0.005 Bx.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the concentrator waste stream has a sugar content of greater than about 0.05 Bx.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the concentrator waste stream is from a commercial juice concentration process.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the sugar-depleted intermediate material, which passes into the size exclusion process, has a sugar content of greater than about 0.005 Bx.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the sugar-depleted intermediate material, which passes into the size exclusion process, has a sugar content of greater than about 0.05 Bx.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the material which exits the size exclusion process has a sugar content of less than about 0.01 Bx.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the material which exits the size exclusion process has a sugar content of less than about 0.005 Bx.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the size exclusion process is a reverse osmosis process or a nanofiltration process.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 Spectrophotometric analysis of the effect of treatments of Example 2 within the 200 nm to 320 nm wavelength range.

(2) FIG. 2 Spectrophotometric analysis of the effect of treatments of Example 2 within the 200 nm to 450 nm wavelength range.

(3) FIG. 3 shows a block flow diagram of a preferred LSJ treatment, including sourcing of the LSJ from an extracted juice concentrator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Examples

Example 1

Recovering Palatable Potable Storable Water from Grape-Derived LSJ

(4) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Change in composition of raw grape LSJ following processing with reverse osmosis and activated carbon. Final composition is treated LSJ fortified with mineral formula and carbonation. Treated Final Constituent Abbreviation Units Raw LSJ LSJ composition TDS Mg/litre 375 27.0 993 Hardness CaCO3 Mg/litre 2 16 pH 2.9 6.1 5.6 Bicarbonate Mg/litre 0.0 311 Calcium Ca Mg/litre 0.3 5 170 Chloride Cl Mg/litre 10.0 0 187 Magnesium Mg Mg/litre 0.2 0.9 60 Manganese Mn Mg/litre 0.0 0.02 Potassium K Mg/litre 56.2 3 Sodium Na Mg/litre 3.2 1.9 34 Sulphate SO4 Mg/litre 80.6 <5 375 TOC Mg/litre 600 230 230 Fluoride F Mg/litre 9 0.49 Iron Fe Mg/litre 0.1 0.16 Nitrate NO3 Mg/litre 0.0 0.02 Selenium Se Mg/litre 0.1 Silver Ag Mg/litre 0.0 Zinc Zn Mg/litre 0.0

(5) The Heterotrophic plate count (most probable number (MPN)/100 ml) was 2, Total coliforms (MPN/100 ml) was 0. E-coli (MPN/100 ml) was 0.

(6) The above represents only one example of the process that can convert raw LSJ into a desirable carbonated water drink that has higher sodium levels. Sodium levels are related to the hydration properties of the water, the higher the sodium, the quicker the rate of hydration. In this simple example raw LSJ has been made into stable water suitable for human consumption but in addition, the taste has been enhanced further as was the functionality by fortification with minerals.

Example 2

Assessing Properties

(7) Objective analysis of the quality of LSJ and the type of treatment required to optimise its composition to a level of acceptance for storage, potability and/or palatability can be achieved using spectrophotometer analysis. The example here demonstrates how raw grape-derived LSJ produced by the process of evaporation of grape juice can be assessed, and the appropriate treatment determined.

(8) In the following example, several constituents were determined for the following treatments and reference samples: 1. Purified laboratory water. 2. Raw grape LSJ without further treatment 3. Raw grape LSJ treated with granular activated carbon (GAC). 4. Raw grape LSJ treated by reverse osmosis then GAC. 5. Potable Australian tap water.

(9) Table 2 below, follows the constituent levels of grape derived raw LSJ and the effect of the different processing steps. It offers a comparison between all these treatments and laboratory purified water and potable tap water. The results showed that activated carbon treatment affected favourably the aroma and taste of the raw LSJ as well as reducing the brix (although to a lesser amount).

(10) The presence of sugar in the LSJ is a substrate for further fermentation and oxidation and the reason for the LSJ instability during storage. Alcohol production or even acetaldehyde products from sugar can also affect the taste and aroma of the LSJ.

(11) Therefore, reducing brix to as low as possible is important if storage of the treated LSJ is required outside a bottle (e.g. in stainless steel tanks) that has exposure to oxygen.

(12) Treatment 4, which combines both RO and GAC reduces the level of sugar in the LSJ the most, and in this example, a level of 0.05 brix in the LSJ did not affect the taste or aroma of the LSJ even after 1 year of storage in an air exposed stainless steel tank.

(13) Treatment 3, using only GAC, also reduces the brix content of the raw LSJ and removes the unpleasant taste and aroma profile of the raw LSJ.

(14) With this evidence, if the LSJ produced is less than 0.13 brix, or less than 0.005 brix, the only treatment that will be required would be activated carbon treatment. If the brix exceeds this 0.13 brix level, it may be necessary to carry out both RO and GAC treatment to stabilise the LSJ for long term storage.

(15) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Constituents 1 2 3 4 5 Colour (A420 + A520), 0 0.01 0 0 0 1 cm path length Brix (refract meter) 0 0.13 0.09 0.05 0 Turbidity 0 1.07 0.282 (Nephelometry) Malic acid (mg/L)- 0 Not detected Not detected Not detected Not detected Enzymatic pH 5.91 8.87 TA (end point 8.2)- 0.02 0 g/L Aroma-panel neutral unpleasant neutral neutral neutral Taste acceptable unacceptable acceptable acceptable acceptable

(16) The effect of processing on total dissolved solids (TDS) and total organic carbon (TOC) were determined and are shown in Table 3 below. TDS and TOC were reduced by both RO and by GAC. The aroma and taste profile of the raw LSJ was borderline after GAC treatment alone but totally acceptable after both RO and GAC treatments combined. From such work, it would be necessary to use both RO and GAC treatment in combination when the TOC is above 1000 mg/l in the raw LSJ.

(17) TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Treatment TDS (mg/L) TOC (mg/L) Taste/aroma 2 115 2333 unacceptable 3 75 1438 borderline 4 9 474 acceptable 5 10 35 acceptable

(18) Spectrophotometric analysis of the effect of each of the above treatments was determined within the 200 nm and 700 nm wavelength range. This spectral range allows for the detection of colour or pigmentation as well as the presence of organic constituents. The spectrophotometer was zeroed using ultra pure laboratory water and a quartz, 1 cm path length, curette was used.

(19) FIGS. 1 and 2 show the following: 1. Purified laboratory water, known for its total neutrality in both composition, aroma and taste is used as a spectral reference point in order to visually determine which applied process improves the neutrality of the LSJ. This water on the Y axis is closest to zero Abs. 2. Raw LSJ, in contrast is the line that shows greater than 1.0 Abs on the Y-axis (FIG. 1) and above 0.1 Abs on the Y-axis (FIG. 2). 3. The LSJ treated with RO and GAC combined is the second line from zero Abs on the Y-axis. 4. Potable Tap water (Australian) intercepts the Y-axis at the same point as 3 above.

(20) LSJ that has been treated with RO followed by GAC is the closest spectral profile to the purified laboratory water. This process produces a LSJ product that is similar to potable tap water. The LSJ treated with just GAC was not as good in quality but acceptable for is consumption.

(21) Such spectral analysis in the laboratory can be used to determine the treatment process the raw LSJ requires in order to achieve similar spectral properties as potable water that is used in any part of the world.

(22) Analysis of the above continuous spectra reveals that relative to purified laboratory water, raw grape LSJ has several peaks. The first peak has been identified at 275 nm and ends at 254 nm. The second peak continues and can be seen at it's highest at 200 nm wavelength. Using this characteristic of raw grape LSJ that has been extracted from grapes by evaporation, the effectiveness of the treatment protocols can be easily quantified by measuring and comparing the absorbance of the treated and reference waters at the above wavelengths. This is shown in Table 4 below.

(23) TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Sample/process A275 nm A254 nm A200 nm A420 nm Purified Lab water 0 0 0.0001 0.0001 Raw LSJ 0.09 0.078 2.7312 0.0069 No-treatment LSJ + GAC 0.001 0.0006 0.233 0.0004 LSJ + RO + GAC 0.0023 0.0035 0.0974 0.0009 Potable Tap water 0.0024 0.0052 0.0792 0.0005

(24) It appears that the above wavelength can be used rather than a scan to optimise the raw LSJ treatment program in order to obtain absorbance values similar to the local potable water.

(25) Having achieved these specifications by the optimum treatment process, it is necessary to finally taste and asses that the aroma and taste profile is acceptable to those who taste it.

(26) This example illustrates a method of analysis of raw LSJ and to determine which process can be used. The skilled person would understand that the process could be repeated for other sources of LSJ, and different wavelengths may need to be selected.

(27) It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined in this specification extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text or drawings. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.