Yi H  Hyoung H  Choo KH  Lee CH

Vol. 5,  No. 1, pp. 78-85, Jun.  1999

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In the Kimchi manufacturing industry that has recently been on its greatest growth, the rinsing process for salt-pickled Chinese cabbage in a brining step generates a vast amount of rinsing wastewater containing salts, colloids, and organics released from the raw material. In this study, the experimental method was developed to optimiza the rinsing water consumption and thus to minimize the rinsing wastewater generation. The continuous counter-current rinsing basin in the actual plant was simulated through the lab-scale three batch-wise rinsing tanks. Rinsing efficiencies for the brined cabbage from the same brining tank were almost in the same level, whereas those varied substantially from source to source in the raw Chinese cabbage provided. When rinsing water used were decreased from 3.3 L/head to 2.7 L/head, no significant change was observed with respect to COD, turbidity, conductivity, Na(+), and Cl(-) concentrations in the extracted solution of the rinsed cabbage. However, the quality of the extracted solution was badly deteriorated as the amount of rinsing water used dropped down to below 2.7 L/head. The reduction of rinsing water up to 18% was proved to be possible without any negative effect on the quality of the product, Kimchi.