How to make tapioca flour from cassava ?

To know how to make tapioca flour from cassava, we need first know what is tapioca flour. Tapioca flour is also called cassava starch which is the starch extracted from cassava tuber. Tapioca flour is widely used as raw materials for food, sugar, medicine, feed, textile, papermaking, chemical and other industrial sectors. Tapioca flour is so widely used in various industries that some one can help asking how to make tapioca flour from cassava. Here is the introduction of the tapioca flour production process.

Tapioca flour making process

1. Cassava choosing process

To make tapioca flour, it is important to choose high quality fresh cassava. It is better to choose cassava between 10-12 month. Cassava less than 10 months has a low flour yield and cassava older than 24 months will cause difficulties to cut and grind.

2. Cassava cleaning and washing process

The chosen cassava is firstly transported into the cleaning machine to remove the attached impurities, such as weed, stone and dirt. After that, the dirt remaining on the surface of the cassava root can be washed off by cassava washing machine. Paddle washing machine is a widely used machine for cassava washing process. It utilizes the countercurrent washing method by which the water and cassava moves in different direction, thus the washing effect is better.

Tapioca flour cleaning machine

3. Cassava cutting and grinding process

To know how to make tapioca flour from cassava, we need to know the key process in the tapioca flour production process. And the grinding is the key process. Before grinding, we need first cut the cassava into small pieces so that it can be easily grinded. The small cassava piece is then fully grinded in rasper which is high efficient grinding machine. After grinding, the cassava is grinded into cassava slurry thus the granules inside the cassava cell walls are released.

4. Separating and desanding process

Due to the cassava slurry contains other impurities such as fiber, protein and cell sap, we need use centrifuge sieve to separate fiber from starch. This cassava slurry separation equipment is made of stainless steel pressure screen which is an advanced screening equipment. It has the features of high efficiency, convenient cleaning and long service life. To achieve better separating effect, we use the centrifuge sieve for four or more stages which can adapted according to requirements. Then it is the desanding process which mainly for removing sand out of cassava slurry. The desander takes use of the different relative density of the sand and starch to remove sand.

Tapioca flour separating machine

5. Concentration and refining process

After separating fiber and removing sand process, the cassava slurry need to be concentration and refining further. In this process, the mainly used machine is hydrocyclone station. Its main function in the process of how to make tapioca flour from cassava is to separate insoluble protein, residual soluble protein and other impurities from starch milk. DOING company uses 12-stage washing cyclones to wash, refine and concentrate starch milk to ensure high quality of final tapioca flour.

6. Dewatering process

The water content of starch milk is too large to dry directly, therefore the dewatering is a necessary in the process of tapioca flour processing. Vacuum filter is used for dewatering process. By utilizing negative pressure, the starch is sucked on surface of the filter cloth and is scraped off by scraper and the filtrate is discharged. Generally, the moisture content of the wet starch after dehydration is about 38%. If the moisture content is high, the drying difficulty will increase.

Tapioca flour dewatering machine

7. Drying and packing process

For the question of how to make tapioca flour from cassava, this is the last step. The dewatered tapioca flour is dried in flash dryer machine. The high speed air flow enters into the flash dryer and mixed with the wet starch to vaporize water. Due to the high heat exchange rate and large material contact area, the whole process is completed in just a few seconds. Then the dried tapioca flour is packed into 25kg or 30kg according to different requirements.

The above is the whole process for how to make tapioca flour from cassava. Doing Company specializes in the manufacture, research & develop and installation the complete set of cassava products deeply processing equipment. Welcome to contact us about tapioca flour processing equipment issue.