Variety of Processes through the Fluid Bed Technology

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A Possible Application: Powdered Milk

As a case study of a typical product, the influence of various parameters on the product properties was examined from the laboratory scale over a scale-up of the pilot plant to the production scale with an approval for food production in the dairy industry.

The aim was to create a agglomerate from milk powder with a fat content of 26%, a narrow distribution of grain sizes, an average diameter of 900 μm and a bulk density of 250 g/l on the one hand and 500 g/l on the other. The residual moisture of the products was limited to <3% by the storage stability. The experiments and the production were carried out at Glatt Ingenieurtechnik in Weimar at the laboratory plant “ProCell LabSystem” and at the production plant approved under food law, respectively. On the basis of the experiments at the laboratory plant, the parameters for the production were calculated. A major point is that the nozzle pressure cannot simply be calculated but is determined empirically on the basis of a master batch. In this example, the batch size of a 5-kg lab-scale experiment was transferred to a production size of 300 kg. In the production, the properties of the products could be reproduced after adjusting the nozzle pressure and the amount of air. An increase of the bulk density could be achieved by bringing in a larger product quantity. The increased filling height results in agglomerates which are compressed more strongly. This may lead to a delay in solubility, which, however, was not the case in this example.

* The author works as a process engineer for Glatt Ingenieurtechnik GmbH, Weimar/Germany.

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