Protein

Industrial Protein Drying Solutions

Ingetecsa has a widespread reputation in the food industry and in the separation and drying of proteins for human consumption or pet food.

Protein drying technologies

Ingetecsa has extensive experience in drying animal- and plant-based proteins using a range of industrial drying technologies. The selection of the most suitable technology depends on the product characteristics, feed consistency and required properties of the dried product.

Our two test centres offer pilot testing to evaluate drying performance, establish operating parameters and produce samples for further product or market evaluation.

Animal based protein

Animal proteins from skin and soft tissue are extracted and dried for several decades now and our references go back quite some time. Also when hydrolysed, the processing of skin and soft tissue must be carried out as gently as possible without strong mechanical or thermal impact, and thus the use of high-quality equipment is of utmost importance.

Examples are
≡ (Hydrolised) pork, beef, veal, sheep to make collagen and gelatine
≡ Rind peptides, (mixtures of) lard
≡ Fish protein hydrolysates (FPH), lecithin
≡ Whey protein concentrate/isolate (WPC/WPI), casein
≡ Sweet whey powder

For liquid or pump-able products, a drum dryer is often used for this as it offers a rapid and intense drying phase while retaining the functional properties. The thin dried sheet is milled to a final powder for use in its final application.

The vacuum drum dryer is the ideal alternative for applications with extremely temperature sensitive products as it keeps drying temperatures very low while still continuous processing remains possible.
Marine/fish products often fall in this category.

Animal protein dried on the drum dryer

Carriers

Sometimes a carrier is required to spray a protein on. Examples of carriers are milled soy or palm fibres, but basically carriers can be a lot of different products.
When a carrier is used for the protein, and the protein is sprayed in the dryer, Ingetecsa’s static fluidised bed dryer is the preferred technology.

The fluid bed dryer has the advantage of its gentle drying at low temperatures in combination with its plug flow motion.

After introducing the carrier in the dryer, it transports itself slowly towards to discharge side on the opposite end the machine. The spray system applies the protein to the carrier quickly after the carrier has been introduced. The dryer slowly removes the moisture from the protein while keeping the product temperature very low, in the range of 45-50°C. Once the protein is dried it has formed a strong bond to the carrier.

If the protein is applied to the carrier upstream, the Spiral Flash Dryer is an excellent alternative drying technology to consider. The Spiral Flash Dryer dries also at low temperatures, similar to the Fluid bed Dryer. On top of it can handle a greater spread of particle sizes. Excellent results have been achieved blending animal (dairy) proteins with carriers such as palm kernel extract (PKE) and drying these to a beautiful protein rich end product.

Visualisation of the fluidisation in Ingetecsa's
static Fluidised Bed technology

Plant based protein

Plant based proteins are not trendier than animal based proteins but the variety in its offering is greater: nuts, grains, vegetables, cereals, and fruits to name most of them. each variety with its unique profile.

Similar to animal based proteins, plant based proteins make use of the same range of technologies as these offer most gentle drying.

Drum dryer

If the protein feed is more a liquid, and pump-able, it is perfect for the drum dryer. Proteins from cereals, tubers and nuts let themselves process easily on the drum dryer.

Some enzyme hydrolysed proteins can be very sticky and highly viscous. It makes processing on the drum dryer ideal.

Hemp protein powder

Paddle dryer

Rice bran is also a good source of protein and fat. At present it is underutilized as a food material. The presence of the lipase enzyme in rice bran causes rapid deterioration of oil to free fatty acids and glycerol. A Paddle Dryer has proven to be a successful technology to deactivate the enzyme allowing a greater range of applications.

Rice bran heat treated in the paddle dryer to
deactivate the lipase enzyme

How we can help

Have a look at our brochures at the download section for more information about the different thermal technologies described here above.

If you are interested how we can inform you with setting up or improving your protein drying process, please contact us.

We have experience with a huge range of different proteins from both animals as vegetables and we can conduct tests in our test centres to simulate or optimise your process. We look forward to sharing our experience with you.