Lynnel C Olpot
University of the Philippines Los BaƱos, Philippines
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Agrotechnology
The laboratory scale screw extrusion agglomeration equipment was developed to assess its effectiveness in the granulation of pre-formulated food powders in which bitter gourd ampalaya powder as the main ingredient. The handling and storage properties of the agglomerated products obtained from mixtures which have three components (bitter gourd power, cassava flour and water) were determined under two screw speeds (80 rpm and 120 rpm). The effectiveness of the equipment was based on the product properties such as Carrā??s Index, Hausner Ratio, friability and disintegration time. The Carrā??s index of the agglomerates ranged from 0.0333 to 0.07333 while the Hausner ratio ranged from 1.0346 to 1.0792. Thus, the handling property of the agglomerates produced by the equipment was excellent. The lowest friability measured was 0.096 indicative of strong and stable agglomerate. The average disintegration time observed was 6.04 minutes. The maximum mass output efficiency and throughput of the agglomeration equipment was 96.15% and 0.3163 kg/kW, respectively.