Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 484489 www.elsevier.

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Drying of vegetable starch solutions on inert particles: Quality and energy aspects
Marzouk Benali *, Mouloud Amazouz
Natural Resources Canada, CANMET Energy Technology Centre, 1615 Lionel-Boulet Blvd., P.O. Box 4800, Varennes, Que., Canada J3X1S6 Received 28 November 2003; received in revised form 9 December 2004; accepted 3 January 2005 Available online 10 May 2005

Abstract The paper deals with the energy eciency of drying vegetable starch solutions on inert particles and the product quality. The experimental results performed in a continuous conical jet spouted bed with Teon particles have shown that, for a given feed rate of vegetable starch solution, the product lightness varies with the initial moisture content and the position of an atomizing device. The starch damage index was below 2.5% and the lightness of the dried starch was in the range 94.196.1. A drying eciency of 90 3% is achieved with the proposed drying method. Crown Copyright 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Color; Starch damage; Powder; Energy eciency; Drying eciency

1. Introduction A drying operation involves inter-phase mass (i.e. moisture) transfer from the wet material to the gaseous drying agent (heated air), which may be illustrated as a transport of moisture from the material core to its surface, followed by evaporation from the surface of the material, and dissipation of water vapor into a bulk of the gaseous drying agent. There are almost as many approaches to drying as there are materials processed. One key characteristic is the fact that biological materials (i.e. foodstus) are thermally sensitive, which imposes operating constraints on drying. Three types of information are therefore needed: how much water is in the material, how fast this water will evaporate, and how fast the product will change or degrade. In most of thermal drying processes used for heat-sensitive materials, the loss of quality is the key issue. Quality may be qualied by avor, tex-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 450 652 5533; fax: +1 450 652 5177. E-mail address: mbenali@nrcan.gc.ca (M. Benali).

ture and color, and determined using a wide range of methods. If color is unacceptable to the consumer, the product is rejected, regardless of its taste and texture. Color gives a quick feedback on possible protein modication and physical property changes. In addition, the unavoidable challenge is to optimize the interaction between product quality and energy eciency. Besides, the condition of minimum energy use is not often the optimal solution because of the capital cost requirements. Drying on inert particles is considered here as a potential alternative to conventional direct drying for preventing food degradation since it modies the drying cycle (Benali, 2004). In addition, it oers the advantage of obtaining powdery products in a dryer of much smaller volume and oor area than spray dryer. Drying of solutions on inert solid particles, as heat carriers (i.e. heating intermediate) is a relatively novel technique to produce free-owing powder, which was developed in the former USSR towards the end of the 1950s. Even though this technique was used in industrial processing of ne chemicals and biological materials in the former USSR, it was not deployed in other countries. Because

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2005.01.045

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Nomenclature cp _ m M q h T X Y0 specic heat, J/kg C mass ow rate, kg/s molar mass, kg/mol heat, J/s enthalpy of air, J/kg dry air temperature, C moisture content, w/w (wet basis) absolute air humidity, kg water/kg dry air g mi pp r str ss v w wb 1 2 3 4 5 gas liquid mixing pumping required starch solution solid content of starch solution vapor wall wet-bulb ambient air inlet of dryer outlet of dryer inlet of starch solution outlet of dry starch

Greek symbols sp specic energy consumption, J/kg water g drying eciency, % ^ g actual energy eciency, % kv latent heat of vaporization (J/kg) Subscripts da dry air ev evaporation

of its ability to produce powders from a large variety of solutions at volumetric evaporative rates competitive with spray drying, drying on inert particles became an active R&D area since the 1980s in Australia (Barrett & Fane, 1989), Brazil (Oliveira & Freire, 1996; Spitzner-Neto, Cunha, & Freire, 1982), Canada (Benali & Amazouz, 2002; Kudra & Mujumdar, 2002), New Zealand (Pham, 1983), Poland (Markowski & Kaminiski, 1983; Markowski, 1992), Russia (Kutsakova & Bogatyrev, 1987; Kutsakova & Usvyat, 1985; Kutsakova, Utkin, & Kupanov, 1990), and United Kingdom (Ochoa-Martinez, Brennan, & Niranjan, 1993a, 1993b). The aim of this paper is to provide some experimental results on controllability of quality, and energy aspects when drying vegetable starch solution on inert particles.

2. Experimental apparatus and methods The experiments were performed in a 0.035 m3 (laboratory-scale unit) and 0.660 m3 (pilot-unit) insulated continuous conical jet spouted bed dryer (Fig. 1) with 5-mm Teon cubes as inert particles. The experiments carried out to date with glass beads, PVC pellets, spherical resin particles, ceramic balls, silica gel spherical particles and Teon cubes and spheres proved that Teon is the most suitable because of no attrition and high capacity to accumulate heat. Virgin Teon was used for all tests carried out on both laboratory and pilot units. An equivalent particle diameter of 36 mm is required to maintain hydrodynamic stability of the bed. The thermal conductivity of Teon is 0.9 kJ/

m h C, and the coecient of linear thermal expansion is 13.2 105 cm/cm/C within the temperature range 25250 C. The static bed height was varied from 0.05 to 0.10 m for the laboratory-unit, and from 0.10 to 0.35 m for the pilot-unit. As shown in Fig. 1, the dryer consists of a drying chamber, a mixer to homogenize the starch solution, a 1200 L-feeding reservoir, a variable 50400 kW electric heater, and a powder discharge system composed of a cyclone and a cartridge lter. A conical grid located at the top of a disengaging chamber prevents Teon particles from being entrained from the drying chamber. The initial solid content of vegetable starch solution varies from 25% to 40%, w/w and its density is 1180 35 kg/m3. This starch solution is atomized into droplets by means of a pneumatic spray nozzle located at the axis of the dryer either at the bottom or on the top. A 1/3-HP positive displacement pump with speed control drive regulates the feed rate to the nozzle. The inlet heated air temperature varied from 140 to 240 C while the starch solution was fed at 1015 C. In continuous operation, the spray of ne droplets of dispersed starch covers the surface of inert particles that are heated by convection by the spouting air stream after a period of peeling o of the dry material. This wet coat is dried by convective heat transfer from the upward hot air stream and by conduction of heat stored in the Teon particles. The drying process continues until the moisture content drops to a critical value, after which the layer is dry enough to become brittle. The dry layer is then broken and peeled o from the surface of Teon due to particle-to-particle collisions, and particle collisions with the dryer walls and the conical grid (abrasion and/or attrition). The steady state condition

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13 12 11

14 8 9 5 7
10

Exhaust

15

6 5 Air 2 1 3 4 10

Drain
1. blower; 2. flowmeter; 3. electric heater; 4. wind box; 5. atomizing device; 6. conical drying chamber; 7. grid; 8. cyclo ne; 9. cartridge f ilter; 10. powder collecto r; 11. raw material storage; 12. rotary pump; 13. paddle-type mixer; 14. feeding reservoir; 15. positive displacement pump

Fig. 1. General view of experimental drying apparatus.

is reached when the temperature of outlet gas is constant. The color is determined using Hunter-Lab portable system. The lightness varies from 0 to 100: 0 being black and 100 being white or colorless. The level of starch damage directly aects the water absorption and dough mixing properties of the starch. Method 76-31 of American Association for Cereal Chemists is used to measure the starch damage. This method provides the extend to which starch has been damaged. A lower percentage indicates smaller damage and for the material tested here, the damage index should be less than 2.5%.

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Quality aspects Vegetable starch is a dicult to handle product because of its tendency to settle very quickly if being not constantly in motion; this can cause pipe clogging. Therefore, the position of a nozzle plays a key role for

such materials. Since the nozzle is in contact with the hot air stream from the dryer inlet the solid deposit of vegetable starch can be formed in the feeding pipe. A water jacket was designed to cool down the nozzle and prevent deposit and clogging. Liquid injection from the bottom reveals better product quality since the lightness (L) and damage index (DI) are in the ranges 95.0 96.1, and 1.86188, respectively when atomizing from the bottom of the dryer. These values are in the ranges 94.194.4, and 1.982.22 when atomizing from the top of the dryer. The industrial quality target for vegetable starch is L P 93. The comparison of the proposed drying method with a commercial ash pneumatic dryer where lightness and damage index are respectively in the ranges L = 9092, and DI = 3.55.1 demonstrates the competitiveness of the proposed drying method in terms of product quality. The feed rate-temperature eect on the nal moisture content (FMC) of dry starch is illustrated in Fig. 2. As expected, the FMC increases with feed rate for a given inlet air temperature, and it decreases with increasing inlet air temperature, for a given feed rate of vegetable

M. Benali, M. Amazouz / Journal of Food Engineering 74 (2006) 484489

Final moisture content of dry starch (%, w/w) 18
upper acceptable limit Upper acceptable limit
39 (%, w/w)

487

16 14
39 (%, w/w)

ranged from 5 to 80 lm, with median diameter of 45.6 lm when the initial solid content was 36.2%, w/w. The size of dried starch ranged from 10 to 120 lm, with a median diameter of 59.7 lm when the initial solid content was 38.3%, w/w. 3.2. Energy aspects

12 10 8 6
38.3 (%, w/w)

38.3 (%, w/w)

Teflon cubes: 12 kg
(Tair)2 = 160C (Tair)2 = 180C (Tair)2 = 210C (Tair)2 = 220C
37.2 (%, w/w)

Energy consumption in the continuous conical jet spouted bed with inert particles arises from the following processes: heating of the inert particles and vegetable starch solution to the required temperature and to compensate for heat losses, mixing and pumping of vegetable starch solution, and blowing air. The key energy parameter from industrial point of view is the specic energy consumption sp of the drying system for a given application, which is related to the variation of the enthalpy of air dened as follows: hair C pg Y 0 C pv T air Y 0 kv 1

(Tair)2 = 240C

4 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 Feed rate (kg/h)

Fig. 2. Eect of inlet air temperature on FMC.

starch solution. Increasing the inlet air temperature from 180 to 240 C increased the damage index by approximately 2530%. Consequently, the optimal inlet air temperature should be in the range from 160 to 180 C. The measurements of FMC were repeated three times with the same measurement procedure, the same operator, and the same measurement instruments, used under the same conditions. A 9297% of the closeness of agreement was found. The eect of feed rate and Teon load on FMC is shown in Fig. 3. At an inlet air temperature of 180 C, the eect of Teon load on the FMC is insignicant above 8 kg. Indeed, even tough the heat transfer should be more ecient when the amount of inert particles increases (i.e. heat transfer area increases), there is, however, an upper limit, above which the internal circulation of inert particles is unstable and the spouting of the bed ceases. The dried starch was subject to laser diraction analysis and the results showed that the size of dried starch
Final moisture content of dry starch (%, w/w) 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Feed rate (kg/h)
(Tair)2 = 180oC mTeflon = 3.6 kg mTeflon = 8 kg mTeflon = 12 kg mTeflon = 16 kg

The absolute air humidity is calculated from the following equation: Y0 M H2 O P H2 O M da P tot P H2 O 2

Fig. 4 illustrates the characteristic changes of air temperature and humidity during drying. Y 0 2 is equal to the ambient absolute air humidity Y 0 1 since there is neither moisture removal nor moisture addition during air heating. The energy required to reach the targeted nal moisture content is therefore: _ qr mda hair 2 hair 1 3

The specic energy consumption sp is given in kJ per kg of evaporated water: q r  sp 4 4 X _ mfeed X1X 55 Fig. 5 shows the specic energy consumption as a function of the drying temperature for a given feed rate of the vegetable starch solution. As expected, the specic energy consumption increases with increasing inlet and outlet air temperature dierence, representing the extent of heat usage during the drying operation. The maximum specic energy consumption is in the order of 3.8 MJ/kg H2O with initial solid content of 36.2%, w/w while it is in the order of 5.3 MJ/kg H2O with initial solid content of 38.3%. Such an expected increase of the specic energy consumption with initial solid content can be explained by the plastic-like characteristics of the starch solution appearing above 3840%, w/w. This nding is conrmed by microscope examination,

upper acceptable limit

Fig. 3. Eect of load of Teon particles on FMC.

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vegetable starch solution

electric heater

4 3 2 Dryer exhaust air 5

1 ambient air

drying hot air

ical and interfacial properties should be examined in details to well describe the thermal resistances and the drying mechanism. The performance of the drying process can be dened either as a drying eciency (g) or as actual energy eciency ^: g g and ^ g qev qsp qpp qmi qw 6 T air 2 T air 3 T air 2 T wb 5

dried starch Temperature

(Tair)2
2 3

(Tair)3 (Tstr)5

(Tair)1
1

where _ _ qev X 4 mfeed C p T str 5 T str 4 X 4 mfeed kv _ 1 X 4 mfeed C p;ss T str 5 T str 4 7

(Tstr)4
4

Absolute Humidity (kg water/kg dry air)

Y3 Y2 Y1

Y1

Fig. 4. Characteristic changes of drying parameters.

Specific Energy Consumption (MJ/kg H2O)

Teflon cubes: 12 kg Feed rate: 107.53 kg/h 7

(Tair)2 = 180 C (Tair)2 = 210oC (Tair)2 = 220oC (Tair)2 = 240oC

Xini = 38.3%, w/w

The power consumed for mixing and pumping the vegetable starch solution is 0.50 and 0.25 kW, respectively. Since the drying system is well insulated and the hydrodynamics are well optimized, the average energy lost through dryer walls is only of the order of 2% of the total energy supplied. Fig. 6 shows the drying eciency as a function of the inlet and outlet air temperature dierence. For a given feed rate and initial solid content, it increases with an increase in the temperature dierence, i.e. for a xed inlet air temperature, (Tair)3 should be as low as possible with respect to the product quality characterized mainly by the residual moisture content and the damage index. Indeed, lowering the outlet air temperature leads to a higher residual moisture content in the dried product (powder). Handling this higher moisture content product becomes a challenge since such powder cannot be discharged continuously from the drying chamber because of cohesion. The high drying eciency results from the rapid and intense movement of Teon parti-

Xini = 36.2%, w/w

100
3

(Xini) = 36.2%, w/w Drying Efficiency (%)

80

79.6% 64.8%

2 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

(Tair)2 - (Tair)3 ( C)
Fig. 5. Specic energy consumption.

60

53.7% 45.6% (Xini) = 38.3%, w/w (Tair)2 = 180oC (Tair)2 = 210 C

o

40

which shows liquid bridges similar to the capillary state occurring in wet agglomerates. As a consequence, it could be expected that the eective interfacial area and hence the volumetric heat transfer would be smaller. Thus, an additional heat is needed for the evaporation of water. However, since the concentrated starch solution is considered as a particular food polymer, rheolog-

20

(Tair)2 = 220oC (Tair)2 = 240oC

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

(Tair)2 - (Tair)3 ( C)
Fig. 6. Drying eciency.

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cles, the large contact area, and the high temperature dierence between the inlet and outlet air. Fig. 6 shows also that the initial solid content aects slightly the drying eciency over the parameter ranges studied. At a temperature dierence below 70 C, the drying eciency decreases by approximately 39% when the initial solid content approaches the plastic-like characteristics of the starch solution. Such decrease of drying eciency becomes higher above 70 C. In addition, the experimental ndings demonstrated that the outlet air temperature inuences the temperature of the inert particles, which can be correlated as follows: T Teflon  C T air 3 17 2  C 8

ment of Natural Resources Canada for their nancial support.

References
Barrett, N., & Fane, A. (1989). Drying liquid materials in a spouted bed. In A. S. Mujumdar & M. Roques (Eds.), Drying89 (pp. 415420). New York: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation. Benali, M. (2004). Thermal drying of foods: Loss of nutritive content and spoilage issues. In A. S. Mujumdar (Ed.), Drying of products of biological origin. India: Oxford IBH and Science Publishers. Benali, M., & Amazouz, M. (2002). Eect of drying aid agents on processing of sticky materials. Developments in Chemical Engineering and Mineral Processing, 10(3/4), 114. Kudra, T., & Mujumdar, A. S. (2002). Advanced drying technologies. NY: Marcel Dekker Inc. Kutsakova, V. E. (2004). Drying of liquid and pasty products in a modied spouted bed of inert particles. Drying Technology, 22(10), 23432350. Kutsakova, V. E., & Bogatyrev, A. N. (1987). Intensication of heat and mass transfer in drying of food products. Moscow: Agropromizdat (in Russian). Kutsakova, V. E., Utkin, Y. V., & Kupanov, B. Y. (1990). Method for drying of liquid materials, Russian Patent No. 1560948. Markowski, A. S. (1992). Drying characteristics in a jet-spouted bed dryer. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 70, 938944. Markowski, A., & Kaminiski, W. (1983). Hydrodynamic characteristic of jet-spouted beds. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 61, 377383. Ochoa-Martinez, L. A., Brennan, J. G., & Niranjan, K. (1993a). Spouted bed dryer for liquid foods. Food Control, 4, 4145. Ochoa-Martinez, L. A., Brennan, J. G., & Niranjan, K. (1993b). Drying of liquids in a spouted bed dryer of inert particles: Heat transfer studies. Journal of Food Engineering, 20, 135148. Oliveira, W. P., & Freire, J. T. (1996). Analysis of evaporation rate in the spouted bed zones during drying of liquid materials using a three region model. In Proceedings of the 10th international drying symposium (IDS96), Krakow-Poland (Vol. A, pp. 504212). Pham, Q. T. (1983). Behavior of a conical spouted-bed dryer for animal blood. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 61, 426434. Spitzner-Neto, P. I., Cunha, F. O., & Freire, J. T. (1982). Eect of the presence of paste in a conical spouted bed dryer with continuous feeding. Drying Technology, 20, 789811.

Such ndings are similar to those obtained in dryer with swirling counter-current streams where the temperature dierence between the inert particles and the outlet air is in the order of 15 3 C during drying of the protein hydrolyzate (Kutsakova, 2004). 4. Concluding remarks Drying of vegetable starch solution in a continuous conical jet spouted bed of inert particles is a good technique to produce a free-owing powder of controlled nal moisture content. In addition, the results point out the importance of outlet air temperature as a key control variable to obtain the optimal product quality and energy eciency. For the material studied the maximum inlet air temperature should not exceed 180 C, and the initial solid content should be in the order of 36 1%, w/w. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Manitoba Hydro and Program on Energy Research and Develop-