Apparent density of passion fruit pulp residue

Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate the apparent density of the pulp residue components (aryl and seeds) aiming to develop a physical separation process for these components. The residue was suspended in water and stirred at 1000 rpm for 60 min to separate the components, which were then dried on paper towelling before carrying out the apparent density measurements using the volumetric balloon method with ethyl alcohol (96 °GL) for the decanted seeds, and hexane for the material suspended in the water, with 10 replicates. The apparent density of the decanted seeds was 1160 kg m-3 and that of the aryl 912 kg m-3 . The suspended seeds of Standard 1 (immature, fine, white seeds) measured 950 kg m-3 ; of Standard 2 (white and/or with the start of dark pigmentation) presented 897 kg m -3; and Standard 3 (dark seeds) measured 851 kg m-3. It was concluded that the apparent density of the decanted seeds was higher than that of the water, making it possible to develop a physical process to separate pure decanted seeds and drag out the suspended material, which has a density lower than that of water. The process of separating the suspended seeds from the aryls cannot be carried out in an aqueous medium.