Application > Biotechnology
The area of biotechnology has had increasing importance in several areas of society, leading the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation - MCTIC to define biotechnology as a priority area in investments among the Enabling Technologies. Given the influence of the presence of water in these products, ranging from macromolecules to living microorganisms, new processes of moisture removal by drying, microencapsulation, coating and granulation have proved to be important ways to increase the stability and therefore the functionality of these products.
Thus, fluidized beds have been widely requested to develop these biotechnological products. The most promising process has been the spray dryer that can produce enzymes, vitamins, hormones, antibiotics and others, as well as microorganisms themselves, with improved functionalities and stability. For example, microencapsulated products that allow greater resistance to environmental factors, and are only released in specific environments and are easier and safer to handle.
On the other hand, fluidized beds have been shown to be valuable in extracting, drying, granulating or coating microorganism processes in various vegetative forms such as fungal spores for agricultural applications. Due to their enormous flexibility, these fluidized beds can be designed specifically for each type of unit operation desired, for example extraction by attrition or size increase by granulation.
Some examples of applications of fluidized beds and spray dryers in biotechnology are:
- Drying of biotechnological products, such as enzymes, hormones, antibiotics, vitamins and others;
- Drying or microencapsulation of microorganisms for pesticides;
- Granulation of dispersible powders for agricultural pesticides;
- Spore extraction from biological control products.