Energy requirements and production cost of the spray drying process of cheese whey

ABSTRACT

The influence of spray drying conditions on the energy required, production cost, and physicochemical characteristics of cheese whey was researched. The factors investigated were the inlet air temperature (180–220°C), outlet air temperature (80–100°C), and silica and maltodextrin (DE-10) as additives at 2 and 5% (w/w), respectively. Analysis of variance revealed that the inlet and outlet air temperatures, and the addition of additives had significant effects (p < 0.10) on the response variables. The best drying conditions were a T_inlet of 180°C, T_outlet of 80°C, and the addition of 5% additive material. Under these conditions, 0.2165 kg/h of dried product was obtained, with a moisture content of 2.08% and water activity of 0.125, and the product cost was $17.06 kg with an energy consumption of 2.0490 kW · h/kg of dry product.

KEYWORDS:

• Cheese whey
• cost
• energy
• production
• spray drying

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) through the project “Fortalecimiento del cuerpo académico en procesos alimentarios a través de la adquisición de equipos especializados de secado” IFR3-2011-03 for the financial support of this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fortalecimiento del cuerpo académico en procesos alimentarios a través de la adquisicién de equipos especializados de secado: [Grant Number IFR3-2011-03].