Freeze-drying has always been considered an extremely expensive procedure to dehydrate food or pharmaceutical products, and for this reason, it has been employed only if strictly necessary or when the high added value of the final product could justify the costs. However, little effort has been made to analyze the factors that make this technology so unaffordable. In this work, a model was proposed to calculate in detail the operational (OC) and capital costs (CC) of a freeze-drying cycle and an evaluation of the process bottlenecks was made. The main result is that the process itself, contrary to the classic belief, is not the most expensive part of freeze-drying, while the initial investment is the real limiting factor. Under this consideration, the optimization of a freeze-drying cycle should be formulated in order to fit more cycles in the lifespan of the apparatus, instead of merely reducing the power consumption of the machine.

Economic analysis of a freeze-drying cycle / Stratta, Lorenzo; Capozzi, Luigi C.; Franzino, Simone; Pisano, Roberto. - In: PROCESSES. - ISSN 2227-9717. - STAMPA. - 8:11(2020), p. 1399. [10.3390/pr8111399]

Economic analysis of a freeze-drying cycle

Lorenzo Stratta;Luigi C. Capozzi;Roberto Pisano
2020

Abstract

Freeze-drying has always been considered an extremely expensive procedure to dehydrate food or pharmaceutical products, and for this reason, it has been employed only if strictly necessary or when the high added value of the final product could justify the costs. However, little effort has been made to analyze the factors that make this technology so unaffordable. In this work, a model was proposed to calculate in detail the operational (OC) and capital costs (CC) of a freeze-drying cycle and an evaluation of the process bottlenecks was made. The main result is that the process itself, contrary to the classic belief, is not the most expensive part of freeze-drying, while the initial investment is the real limiting factor. Under this consideration, the optimization of a freeze-drying cycle should be formulated in order to fit more cycles in the lifespan of the apparatus, instead of merely reducing the power consumption of the machine.
2020
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
a-2020_P_8(11)_1399_(post-print).pdf

non disponibili

Descrizione: a-2020_P_8(11)_1399_(post-print)
Tipologia: 2. Post-print / Author's Accepted Manuscript
Licenza: PUBBLICO - Tutti i diritti riservati
Dimensione 608 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
608 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
a-2020_P_8(11)_1399.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: a-2020_P_8(11)_1399
Tipologia: 2a Post-print versione editoriale / Version of Record
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 1.21 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.21 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2863277