BIXIN POWDER PRODUCTION IN CONICAL SPOUTED BED UNITS

Recent work has demonstrated that the red carotenoid bixin is easily e xtracted from Bixa orellana seeds by particle attrition and impact rat her than by solvent extraction. This technique may require a previous step for drying seeds at a safe temperature to preserve pigment qualit y. A spouted bed (SB) with a draft tube is the most appropriate equipm ent to process both seed drying and bixin extraction at low operationa l costs. Operational parameters of the SE unit are optimized as a func tion of the powder production rate. The maximum air inlet temperature for drying the seeds is also specified. A high performance liquid chro matography method has been developed for the semi-quantitative determi nation of bixin content in the powder produced. Results show that this SE unit can be more competitive than ball mill equipment.