3. Overview of Thailand tapioca starch industry
3.1. Production process
In Thailand, processing of tapioca starch is similar among the
plants, but it may be different in techniques and machines used in
each production stage. Shown in Fig. 1 is the production process of
tapioca starch to which no reuse and recycling of water in the
production lines are applied. Although most of the studied plants
reuse and recycle water at some point, this processing scheme is
intended to show potential sources of water consumption and
wastewater generation. The total amount of water used, wastewater
generated, sand and peel, and fibrous residues were averaged
from the eight studied plants. The portions of water used and
wastewater generated in each production stage were obtained from
the previous study team [5]. The wet matter mass and water mass
balances are based on 1 ton of produced starch. Moisture contents
of the matter streams are stated in parentheses.