What the calculator computes
The calculator helps to plan a juice or puree line for apples, pears, tomatoes, berries and stone fruit: how much product will be obtained from the raw material, how much will go to waste at each stage, what thermal power is needed for pasteurisation and cooling and, if the product is concentrated, how much water to evaporate and how much steam this will take.
Two calculation modes
- Do not evaporate — direct-pressed juice or puree: raw material → preparation → extraction or pulping → juice or puree → pasteurisation → cooling → filling.
- Evaporate — the same as far as juice or puree, then concentration to the target Brix: evaporated water, concentrate mass, heating steam consumption by number of effects, and pasteurisation is calculated for the concentrate.
Switching the mode does not erase what you entered: the evaporation values are kept while you compare options.
What you need to enter
- the crop from the list, the extraction method (press, extractor, pulping; for tomatoes — hot or cold break) and the product type — juice or puree;
- raw material mass per hour or per batch, raw material Brix, losses at preparation and shift duration;
- product yield — your own or a range from the reference book if the data for the crop has been verified by a technologist;
- for pasteurisation — the inlet temperature, the pasteurisation temperature and the heat recuperation fraction, for cooling — the filling temperature;
- for evaporation — the target Brix and the number of evaporator effects;
- container volume: bottle, Bag-in-Box or aseptic bag.
What you will get
- Stage balance: raw material mass, losses at preparation, extraction waste (pomace, stones, skin), juice or puree and, in “Evaporate” mode, evaporated water and concentrate; a check that the balance closes, and consistency of the dry matter.
- Pasteurisation and cooling: heater thermal power without and with recuperation, cooling power, energy per shift or batch.
- Evaporation: water, concentrate, heating steam consumption per kilogram of evaporated water and in total, power.
- Volumes: mass and litres of product per shift and per day, number of containers.
- Charts: material flow of the line (flow thickness changes with the parameters), Brix by stage and a “before / after” evaporation comparison.
- Equipment selection from the catalogue for the extraction or pulping, pasteurisation and evaporation stages — and a “Request to a manager” if there is no suitable model.
How it is calculated
The mass balance, thermal power and water balance in evaporation are calculated from well-known heat and mass transfer relationships directly in your browser, taking into account how juice properties change with Brix. Product yield, losses and recommended heat treatment regimes are empirical reference data: the server uses them, and only for crops verified by a technologist. For other crops the calculator will ask you to enter your own yield — the rest of the calculation works the same way.
Values that depend on empirical yield or assumptions about the efficiency of the evaporator are shown as a “from — to” range; balance values as a single number marked “calculation”. The result is approximate: yield depends on variety, ripeness and equipment settings.