PEA PROTEIN ISOLATE MOISTURE CONTENT EFFECT ON FLUID DYNAMICS BEHAVIOR AND PARTICLE GROWTH KINETIC IN FLUIDIZED BED

The pea protein isolate (PPI) has great potential as substitute for soy protein, but it is cohesive and non-instantaneous, limiting its use in industrial processes, due to a channeling formation during its fluidization. This work aimed to evaluate the influence of raw material moisture content on fluid dynamic behavior and the particle growth kinetic during agglomeration process. The operating conditions were air temperature at 75 °C and rotating pulse at 4 Hz. It were carried out 3 experimental runs to determination of minimum fluidizing velocity (umf) and fluid dynamic behavior evaluation. About particle growth kinetic, operating velocity was set at 10% above umf for each moisture initial condition (5, 7 and 9%), besides that, the following conditions were kept fixed: binder flow rate at 3.0 mL/min, atomization air pressure at 7.0 psi, and atomization nozzle height at 0.3 m. Water was used as liquid binder. It was observed that the highest raw material moisture content makes it difficult to fluidize the bed, resulting in higher value of umf. Particle size was monitored in-line, becoming possible that was observed in real time the growth of particle size in relation to raw material above 162%.