A STUDY OF RE-DESIGNING AND MANUFACTURING PILOT SCALE GLUCOMANNAN PRODUCTION LINE USING AMORPHOPHALLUS KRAUSEI RIZHOMES CULTIVATED IN AN GIANG PROVINCE

Abstract

The aim of the study was to re-design and manufacture a small scale synchonous production line to produce purified glucomannan-GM powder using An Giang cultivated Amorphophallus Krausei rizhomes with production capacity approximately 200kg per batch. The re-designed GM production chain is complete and capacity-synchronized ranging from rizhomes preparation with wash-peeler to extraction, purification for high-quality GM powder production including re-designing main equipment such as wet grilling machine, horizonal centrifugal separator and cold dryer. The results showed that the final product had glucomannan content as high as 80%; the production line includes washing-peeling equipment (maximum capacity of 800 kg/ day), wet grinding equipment (maximum capacity of 1,000 kg of bulbs/ day), centrifugal separative equipment (maximum capacity of 300 kg tubers/ day) and cold drying equipment (maximum capacity of 300 kg bulbs/ day) for the whole line maximum capacity of 200 kg raw material/day (8-hour shift).