Spray drying is a key stage in many industries and in particular in the food processing industry. It is a process in which water is evaporated from a product without altering its essential characteristics.
Traditionally, the technology used for this operation was the Spray Dryer, a methodology that produces dry powder from a liquid using rapid drying with a hot gas. Some small drying equipment vendors with little access to research have developed other variants on standard drying to compensate for some of the limitations conventional dryers face.
Now, with the demonstration activity project ‘DEMOPROTEC: Innovation in the sustainability of drying ingredients and liquid foods’, with funding from the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, the Food Industries research team of the Institute for Research and Agrifood Technology (IRTA) aims to demonstrate to companies in the Catalan sector advanced drying with Pulsed Combustion Drying (PCD) technology and its applicability to different products for human consumption and by-products for animal nutrition.
The DEMOPROTEC project is aimed at all producers in the food industry in Catalonia, approximately 7,500 producers interested in using it for human food and 360 for animal feed.
