IMPROVING THE CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE SPRAY DURING PROCESS OF LIQUID FOODS THROUGH MODELING AND EXPERIMENTATION

The long-term goal of this project is to improve the current understanding of the spray drying process of liquid foods using computer modeling and experimentation to produce high-quality products cost-effectively with small physical and energy footprints. The proposed study will exploit the advances in computing modeling as well as state-of-the-art analytical tools to optimize the spray drying operations of liquid foods and to evaluate the effect of particle surface area and particle size on the shelf stability of spray dried powders. Moreover, the holistic approach of the proposed project will a) improve the efficiencies of spray drying operations of liquid foods, b) support the development of cost-effective spray drying operations for the production of high-quality food powders; c) accelerate the research and development of novel spray dried food materials and d) increase the current profits of the U.S. food industry. We propose to generate the resources, missing knowledge and technology needed for developing high-quality and safe spray dried food ingredients. Thus, improving the competitiveness and profitability of the global spray dried food industry. The specific objectives of the proposed project are:To develop steady-state CFD simulation models of concurrent and mixed-flow spray drying of liquid foods.To experimentally validate the results obtained by 3D-CFD simulation models of the spray drying of liquid foods.To produce spray dried particles with different particle sizes and BET surface areas.To evaluate the effect of BET surface area and particle size on the shelf stability of food-grade powder particles.To develop educational tools based on the knowledge and technology developed in this project and to facilitate its adoption among food processors, regulators, educators and Extension specialists through workshops and training activities.