A small test apparatus was made for partial melting of ice at controlled conditions in temperature and
stirring speed. Ice cubes from 10 wt% sucrose were partially melted in this apparatus at 4 temperature
and 4 stirring speeds. At the lower temperature with relatively faster stirring speed, the initially-melted
fractions effectively contained the higher concentration of solute than the later-melted fractions. The
partial ice-melting technique was combined with progressive freeze-concentration (PFC) to improve
the yield in PFC. Apple juice with 13.7 Brix was concentrated up to 25.5 Brix by PFC using a tubular
ice system. Then, the partial ice-melting was applied for the ice formed by PFC to improve the yield from
63.8% to 85% by recovering the initial 30% melted fraction. The partial ice-melting was also applied to
pear (La France) juice flavor condensate. After 2.36 times concentration of flavor component (butyl
acetate) by PFC, the yield was improved from 86.7% to 95% by recovering the initial 35% melted fraction
in the partial ice-melting process. Partial ice-melting technique will overcome the major drawback of
PFC, in which the yield decreases with an increase in solute concentration because of the solute inclusion
in the ice.