Secagem de clara de ovo em leito de jorro fluidizado bidimensional. / Drying of egg white in a 2D spouted fluidized bed.

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

The objective of this study was to evaluate an egg white drying process using a two-dimensional spouted fluidized bed dryer with glass spheres as the inert particles. A complete 24 factorial design was used, with 3 central and 8 axial points, using the following independent variables: temperature (55-95ºC), total drying air flow rate (97.1-138.3 m3/h), ratio between spout and annulus air flow rates (0.6-1.4)and paste feed flow rate (2.0-10.0 g/min). As responses, the moisture distribution in the bed during drying, product moisture content, mass of dry matter adhered to inert particles, powder recovery efficiency, product colour as powder and after dissolving in water, thermal properties, protein content, solubility in aqueous medium and rheological properties at high and low deformation of heat-induced egg white gels. The use of a complete factorial design and response surfaces was fundamental to evaluate the simultaneous effect of the drying conditions in a spouted fluidized bed on the process and obtained product. This methodology significantly reduced the number of experiments and showed to be efficient to understand the cause and effect relationship of process conditions on responses. All the process conditions studied influenced the characteristics of the product obtained, but temperature and air flow rate were the most important variables in defining the quality of the egg white dried in a spouted fluidized bed. The statistical technique of desirability was used to evaluate the relationship between the various responses obtained and the process variables, and to determine the optimum dryer operating conditions. It was concluded that the optimum operational levels for the dryer were: temperature of 73.7ºC, air flow rate of 110.8 m3/h, ratio of spout/annulus flow rate of 1.1 (58.04 m3/h and 52.76 m3/h of spout and annulus flow rate, respectively) and paste flow rate of 9.2 g/min. Under these conditions, 60% of the desired total for all the responses would be attained, the recovery efficiency of the dry material by the cyclone would be 74.4% and the degree of protein denaturation would be low (conalbumin: 42.1% and ovalbumin: 25.5%), resulting in very good solubility (about 98%). In this case, the temperature at the start of the gel structure development would be estimated at 62ºC, although the gel strength would be given by the ovalbumin denaturation (denaturation temperature near 80ºC) and for this reason, the rheological characteristics of the thermal egg white gels were investigated. The thermal gels (80ºC/30 min) of egg white dried in a spouted fluidized bed, obtained in this study, showed high deformability and elastic characteristics, similar to the gels obtained from freeze-dried egg white (literature data). Thus, from the analysis of the obtained results it was possible to optimize the drying of egg white in a spouted fluidized bed, obtaining good process efficiency yet preserving the functional properties.

ASSUNTO(S)

clara de ovo desnaturação proteica leite de jorro reologia spouted bed secagem rheology otimização optimization egg white drying protein denaturation

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