A new granulation technique employing a spray fluidized bed granulator, which directly produces granules from liquid materials, was proposed. Instant coffee dissolved in water was used as a liquid material. In order to clarify the agglomeration mechanisms in the granulator, changes in physical properties of granules were measured at various feed rates of liquid materials. We proposed an index R which is related to the liquid feed rate and is capable of evaluating the drying condition in the granulator quantitatively.
Through the experimental results, it was found that the granule formation proceeds depending on the R value by the following three granulation mechanisms; 1) generation of fine particles by spray drying effect, 2) agglomeration of fine particles, and 3) layering of fine particles onto the surface of individual agglomerates.
Spherical granule products with a high bulk density were obtained especially by the layering granulation in a stable fluidized bed. Further the growth of granules during the layering granulation was well described by an equation derived from the mass balance for coffee solids in the granulator.
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