Process and apparatus for manufacture of casein

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF A PRECIPITATED PROTEIN MATERIAL FROM AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION OF THE SAME, THE PROTEIN MATERIAL BEING CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT WHEN PRECIPITATED FROM THE SOLUTION IT HAS PROPERTIES TENDING TO CAUSE IT TO COALESCE OR AGGLOMERATE, CONTINUOUSLY COMMINGLING A STREAM OF THE SOLUTION WITH A STEAM OF ACID, WHEREBY THE SOLUTION IS ACIDIFIED TO INITIATE PRECIPITATION OF THE PROTEIN MATERIAL THEREFROM, AND THEN CAUSING THE COMBINED ACIDIFIED MATERIAL, BEFORE ANY SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION HAS OCCURED, TO FLOW CONTINUOUSLY ALONG AN EXTENDED AND SUBSTANTIALLY UNOBSTRUCTED PATH THAT CONFINES THE STREAM ON ALL SIDES WITH PROGRESSIVE CONTINUED PRECIPITATION OF THE PROTEIN MATERIAL AND WITH PROGRESSIVE COALESCENCE OF THE PROTEIN MATERIAL IN SAID PATH INTO THE FORM OF A ROPE-LIKE CURD MASS WHICH MOVES CONTINUOUSLY WITH THE FLOW, DELIVERING THE CURD MASS AND THE REMAINING LIQUID FRACTION FROM THE CONFINED PATH AND THEN SEPARATING THE CURD MASS FROM THE LIQUID FRACTION.