Carbohydrates, Sugar and Maltodextrin - Niro has spray dryers, multistage dryers and FILTERMAT® dryers for a huge variety of these products.

 

Many of the most important ingredients in the food industry are made from starches from corn, grain, potatoes, yams and tapioca. Inulin and gums are also very important, as they can be transformed into many products with special characteristics.

Very important products in the group are:

• maltodextrins
• corn syrups
• sugar
• glucose
• malts
• sorbitol
• xylitol
• maltitol
• gum arabic
• carragenan
• pectin
  

The type of dryer selected depends on the product properties. Niro has supplied conventional spray dryers, multistage dryers and FILTERMAT® dryers for a huge variety of these products. Hundreds of these dryers are today in worldwide operation.


MALTODEXTRINS AND MALTS
Starch is the basis for many of products, and starch is a group of polymers based on glucose. The structure and size of the starch granules depends on the crop, soil, weather, and harvesting.

Starches can be transformed into many important products by hydrolysis with acid or enzymes. The resulting products assigned a value describing the Dextrose Equivalent. Products with DE-values from 6 to 19 are called Maltodextrins, those with DE-values from 20 to 91 are generally deemed Syrups (the most common is 'corn-syrup'). Products with DE-values of 92 to 99 are called 'Total Sugar'. A value of DE-100 is equal to pure Glucose (Dextrose).

Products with DE-values of 6 to 38 are normally dried on conventional dryers for fine particle products, or on multi-stage dryers for coarse and agglomerated products.

Products with values of DE-10 to DE-100 can be dried on a FILTERMAT® dryer, which yields a coarse, agglomerated product.

Malts contain a high amount of Maltose of the type used for beer brewing and for malt drinks et c. should be spray dried on various types of dryers, depending on the resulting composition and thermoplasticity. Conventional spray dryers can be used for regular malts, while the FILTERMAT® is required for the thermoplastic products.

Many artificial sweetener products are made by spray drying mixes of malto-dextrins with small amounts of aspratam.

Dryers have been installed with capacities from 100-7000 kg per hour.

SUGAR:
Sugar is normally not spray dried, but some 'low bulk density' products have been made on Niro dryers for special use, such as in breakfast cereals.


SUGAR ALCOHOLS:
Many important low-calorie sweeteners like sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol are spray dried today as they have been shown to obtain very good properties for tableting, solubility and handling. The products are normally very sticky and thermoplastic, and require long process times for crystallisation. They cannot be dried on conventional dryers, but Niro has designed special industrial installations for spray drying this type of product. Most successful for this application is the FILTERMAT® drying system.

INULIN:
Inulin is extracted mainly from chicory roots and jerusalem roots. Inulin is a group of polymers made from one glucose molecule plus several fructose molecules. Composition depends on aspects of crop, soil, weather and time of harvest.

Inulin can be made into various important food ingredients by hydrolysis and other types of processing.

The normal inulins can be spray dried on conventional spray dryers to make fine particle products, or on multistage dryers to make coarse and agglomerated products. Many of the processed inulins are sticky and thermoplastic products which can require the use of a FILTERMAT® dryer to produce stable powders with good functional properties. A NOZZLE TOWERTM dryer can also be considered.

Niro has developed the technologies for spray drying of these products, and has supplied industrial dryers for them.



PECTINS,SEA-WEED POLYMERS AND TREE-GUM POLYMERS:
These groups of natural products are carbohydrate-polymers found in:

• fruits
• sea-weed
• tree-gums

These complicated polymers are composed of different carbohydrates, such as:

• galacturonic acid
• annuronic acid
• guluronic acid
• galactose
• arabinose
• xylose
• rhamnose
• mannose
• glucose
• fructose

The water solutions of these products have high viscosity. They are in popular use within the food industry as gelling agents and thickeners.

The water solutions or melts are often dried by roller or drum drying, followed by prilling. Several of these products can today be made as spray dried products with low dust content, improved free-flowing properties and increased wetability and solubility.
Niro has experience in supplying industrial spray dryers for most of these products.