Title: Estudo da granulação de suco de acerola desidratado em leito fluidizado
Abstract:The objective of this work was to study the modifications in the physical properties of acerola powder, dried in spray dryer, by wet-agglomeration process in fluidized bed.The equipment used was a bat...The objective of this work was to study the modifications in the physical properties of acerola powder, dried in spray dryer, by wet-agglomeration process in fluidized bed.The equipment used was a batch fluidized bed built in acrylic material.To study of the principal variables in granulation process, a 1 4 2 -fractional factorial design was used as statistical tool.The experimental runs of the factorial design were made varying the following operating conditions of the equipment: fluidizing air temperature and velocity, flow of the atomizing air and the height of nozzle in the bed.Several physical properties were measured to evaluate the granulated product, as the: average particle size, humidity percentage, wetting time, solubility and bed porosity.Through of the effects obtained in the experimental design, the better process conditions were selected.In these conditions, when there is major productivity, the granulation kinetics was measured with two different atomizing liquid flow.The psychometrics properties of air in the heating and wetting steps were determined in all experiments.It was verified that the particles enlargement occurs when the relative humidity in the bed increases and, consequently, the moisture of the product increases.However, the excessive increasing of the relative humidity results in a decreasing of the productivity, caused by caking and product incrustation.The consolidation of small granules results in an increasing of the instant properties, decreasing the wetting time and the percentage of non-soluble material.Read More