An experimental investigation of lime juice drying in a pilot plant spray dryer

One of the major problems in spray drying of fruit juices such as lime juice is stickiness and thermoplasticity of their compositions. Lime juice consists of invert sugars and citric acid, which have low glass transition temperatures. Due to this characteristic, the particles stick on the dryer wall upon their collision with it. As a result, drying of these materials is very difficult. In order to solve this problem, various percent of silicon dioxide and maltodextrin (DE5), based on total soluble solid content of lime juice, have been used to reach a suitable drying condition. A cool chamber wall spray dryer was used in this investigation in order to decrease the probability of particles stickiness on the wall. Our investigation revealed that an addition of 10% silicon dioxide and 20% maltodextrin (DE5) to lime juice is the optimum amount for a complete and successful drying of lime juice. Sampling of particles from different longitudinal distances in the dryer tower is carried out to find the particle moisture contents as they fly downward in the dryer. The results show a very fast decrease in entrance moisture contents. Based on our experimental data, the variation of moisture contents are presented as a function of radial distance from central line and longitudinal distance from the entrance region.