Spray Drying of Aqueous Agar Solution

In order to obtain the basic knowledge on the industrial application of the spray drying method of agar-agar, the aqueous agar extract from Gelidium pacificum OKAMURA, a typical red algae for agar-agar manufacture, as well as the aqueous agar solutions of commercial powder agar which were mostly processed from the alkali treated Cracilaria species were Spray dried by an experimental spray drier.Generally, no distinctive reduction of melting point and jelly strength was observed by the spray drying Process at the input air temperature of 130°C. However, jelly strength was affected by the spray drying Process at 150°C input air temperature. The spray dried products were consisted of hollow granules of which diameters are 3 to 100 microns. The economical anticipation as well as some other technical problems were also discussed.