Process simulation and debottlenecking for an industrial cocoa manufacturing process

Simulation flowsheet for industrial cocoa manufacturing process. [Display omitted] ▶ Process simulation tool identifies overall process bottleneck. ▶ Debottlenecking schemes were developed to double the current production rate. ▶ Economic performance were carried out based on cost-benefit ratio. Cocoa is a common ingredient for various food and confectionery products. Industrial production of this ingredient however is normally not optimised, due to the lack of appropriate analytical tools. Furthermore, cocoa processing is normally operated in semi-continuous mode, and this adds to the difficulty in optimising the various unit operations involved. In this work, a computer-aided process simulation tool was used to model and debottleckneck an industrial cocoa manufacturing process, with the aim to identify an economically viable production scheme that would double the current production rate.