A RESEARCH ON THE PRODUCTION OF SILK SERICIN POWDERS BY USING SPRAY DRYING METHOD

Sericin protein is usually discarded as a waste in silk, industry. Production of silk sericin powders, which can be incorporated into fibers used in textile industry, by spray drying method will enable Value-added utilization of waste sericin. In this study aqueous sericin Solutions were used as raw material for the production of dry powders using a lab-scale spray dryer. A linear regression analyses were employed, in addition to experimental design at two levels with three factors for the analysis of three responses: moisture content, particle type and agglomeration degree. The process factors were the drying air temperature (120 degrees C and 160 degrees C), the feed rate (1.25x10(-4) and 2.5x10(-4) dm(3)s(-1)), and the concentration of sericin solutions of 10% and 30% (w/w) fed to the spray dryer. The three responses were analyzed statistically to determine the effective parameters and it Was Concluded that moisture content depended on three factors-drying, air temperature being the dominant parameter. Particle size and shape depended mainly on feed rate and agglomeration depended oil file moisture content of the product.