How is reagent-grade starch made from potatoes?

Using potatoes, reagent-grade starch can be produced with low cost and high economic benefit.

Production method

1. Washing and making potato pulp: Wash the potatoes with water 2 to 3 times, remove all mud and sand, and cut away potato pieces with hoe injuries and rotten holes. Start the crusher, feed in the washed potato pieces, and the potato pulp will flow out immediately. Because fresh potatoes themselves contain about 75% water, no additional water is needed when pulping.

2. Filtering the pulp and rinsing the starch: Filter the potato pulp by machine or by hand, and store the starch milk (water containing starch) in a tank to clarify. After the starch in the tank settles to the bottom, pour off the upper water, take out the starch block, place it in a clay vat, add clean water and stir. After the starch clarifies, pour off the upper liquid, scrape off the yellow starch, add clean water again and stir, and use a 100 to 140 mesh sieve to remove impurities. Repeatedly add clean water and rinse until the upper water is clear.

3. Starch hydrolysis: Before hydrolysis, put clean water into the hydrolysis tank, connect the power supply, heat the water to 40 to 50°C, then place it in a washed clay vat, and according to the ingredient list, measure and add the acid, water, and wet starch into the vat for hydrolysis. Stir at any time during the hydrolysis process, and remove from the vat after passing testing.

4. Washing out the acid: Take out the qualified hydrolyzed starch milk with a plastic basin, pour it into a clay vat previously filled with half a vat of clean water, then fill the vat with clean water so that the temperature of the material liquid drops rapidly to prevent conversion into dextrin. After the starch settles to the bottom, pour off the upper acid liquid, add clean water and repeatedly rinse until neutral (controlled with pH test paper). Pass through a 100 to 140 mesh sieve to remove impurities. Wash with distilled water until the chloride content is qualified (about 2 to 3 times).

5. Drying and grinding fine: After rinsing is qualified, pour off the upper clear liquid, take out the starch block and break it up, place it on a board covered with white cloth, and put it into the drying room to dry. In the early stage of baking, control the temperature at 40 to 50°C; after most of the water has been baked off, the temperature can be gradually increased. During the drying process, turn and break it up at any time, and take it out after about 20 hours. Grind it with a mill, sieve out impurities, then bake for several more hours until there is no sticky feeling when it is put into a dry glass bottle and shaken, take it out to cool, and take a sample for testing.

6. Packaging: The ground and re-baked product is subpackaged into pre-washed 650 to 750 milliliter brown screw-thread glass bottles, with 500 grams per bottle. Cover with plastic inner and outer caps, and put a seal over the bottle mouth. After passing testing, attach the bottle label of the corresponding grade, and pack into specially made cartons, with 10 bottles per carton.