November 21, 2019

We occasionally get an inquiry about making celery juice. We have even sold a screw press or two for the application. Today inquiries come from organic juice producers.

In order to get some data, in January we bought a case of celery and ran it in a Model CP-4 lab press. We re-ran the test in November with a Model KP-6 press. This led to finding an error in the captions of the first video, so we had to edit and re-post it. Here are links to the two new videos:

CP-4 2.5 min. CELERY JUICING Live at: https://youtu.be/K1pUFgdNdWc
KP-6 6.5 min. CELERY & SPINACH Live at: https://youtu.be/0VIZfvcMr0o

First we tried feeding whole celery into the presses. It was very difficult to feed the CP-4 press that way. For the KP-6 trial we started with chopping the celery into 4″ billets. Those fed a lot better. The test data is charted below.

Next we shredded the remaining celery in our VS-8 lab shredder. When we ran this thought the presses, throughput capacities went up. And, also as expected, the juice yield went up significantly.

The testing showed that celery has only a small amount of dissolved solids. We got readings of about 3º Brix in both trials. The total solids in the press liquor were 3% to 4%, which tells us that there was very little insoluble fiber coming through the screens of the presses.

The screens we used in the presses were wedgewire with slots which are only 0.012″ wide. Usually such a narrow slot is reserved for when we are pressing alcohol or oil from some organic material. It is good to know that the fine slot will work on some water-based materials.

Any press rented or sold for celery juice would be shipped with what we label “Vincent Food Grade”:
The liquid contact parts will be sand blasted; then pits and undercuts will be filled; and spatter will be removed. Final blasting will be done with glass bead to give a slight luster to the metal. The stainless surfaces will be passivated with acid compound. Food grade grease will be used in the factory. If specified, the gearbox will be filled with food grade oil.

TEST RESULTS

Issue #318