Processing of Rosmarinus officinalis Linne extract on spray and spouted bed dryers

This article presents an investigation of the potential of spray and spouted bed technology for the production of dried extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis Linne, popularly known as rosemary. The extractive solution was characterized by loss on drying, extractable matter and total phenolic and flavonoid compounds (chemical markers). The product was characterized by determination of loss on drying, size distribution, morphology, flow properties and thermal degradation and thermal behavior. The spray and spouted bed dryer performance were assessed through estimation of thermal efficiency, product accumulation and product recovery. The parameters studied were the inlet temperature of the spouting gas (80 and 150 degrees C) and the feed mass flow rate of concentrated extract relative to the evaporation capacity of the dryer, W-s/W-max (15 to 75%). The atomizing air flow rate was maintained at 20 l/min with a pressure of 196.1 kPa. The spouting gas flow rate used in the drying runs was 40% higher than the gas flow under the condition of minimum spouting. The spray drying gas flow rate was fixed at 0.0118 kg/s. Under the conditions studied, performance in the spray and spouted bed drying of rosemary extract was poor, causing high degradation of the marker compounds (mainly the phenolic compounds). Thus, process improvements are required before use on an industrial scale.