INFLUENCE OF FEED PARAMETERS ON SPRAY DRYING ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of the present research was to simulate and evaluate the performance of spray dryers using MATLAB software. The assessments regarding energy consumption and thermal efficiency were performed. Simulations were conducted to identify the effect of the following parameters' influence on energy consumption: (1) the initial liquid feed moisture content, which ranged from 0.5 kg to 0.9 kg water/kg product, (2) the final moisture content, which ranged from 0.05 kg to 0.3 kg water/kg solid, and (3) the feed flow, ranging from 1 to 10 kg/s. It was found that energy consumption increased with increasing moisture content and feed flow rate and with decreasing final moisture content. The results indicated that the thermal efficiency of the process does not change when process parameters are varied. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSDrying is a process in which food water activity is reduced by water removal to minimize deterioration caused by enzymatic and microbiological reactions and to prevent physical and chemical modification of products. Dried products are used mainly as convenience foods and have long storage life at normal temperatures. Spray drying is a commonly used method of drying a liquid feed through a hot gas in the production of powders. This technique is widely used in food and pharmaceutical manufacturing and presents low operating cost and short contact time. Nowadays, the development of new products has used encapsulating agent, with good emulsifying capacity and low viscosity in aqueous solution, in microencapsulation by spray drying. This wide application of spray drying in research of new product increases the need of engineers to understand energy calculation with mass and heat balance concerning spray‐drying process.