JPH03240475A - Production of granular sugar - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To readily and efficiently obtain granular sugar, having a small and uniform grain size and excellent in solubility, fluidity, tableting properties, etc., by aggregating raw material powder in a cylindrical container according to a stirring type granulating method, simultaneously disintegrating and separating the aforementioned aggregated substance by a specific method. CONSTITUTION:Raw material powder selected from saccharides, sugar alcohols and sweeteners with a high sweetness is initially aggregated in a cylindrical container 1 having a horizontally fixed shaft by dripping or spraying a liquid binder in an amount of 4.5-15%wt./wt. based on the raw material powder from the upper part or side while being stirred and moved with rotating blades 4 rotating around the aforementioned horizontal shaft line. The above-mentioned aggregated material is simultaneously disintegrated and separated by action of an impact body 6 rotating at 2000-6500r.p.m. on the inside of the rotating blades 4 and the aforementioned aggregation, disintegration and separation are further repeated to afford the objective substance.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for producing granulated sugar, and more specifically, the solubility,
The present invention relates to a method for producing granulated sugar with excellent fluidity, dispersibility, and tabletability, or granulated sugar with enhanced sweetness or flavor.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, methods for producing granulated sugar from powders such as saccharides are as follows: a. Transfer-type granulation, in which a tilted drum or tilted dish-shaped container is rotated, and raw material powder and liquid binder are fed into the container and granulated; Method b. Vibratory granulation method, in which raw material powder and liquid binder are continuously supplied onto a diaphragm and granulated; Compression molding, in which C1 raw material powder is filled into a small mold and granulated by applying pressure. Type granulation method, d. Stirring type granulation method, in which the raw material powder is stirred with a stirrer, etc., and a liquid binder is added to it to granulate it. e. The raw material powder is prepared with a porous plate at the bottom. A fluidized granulation method in which the powder is placed in a container, air is introduced through a perforated plate to make it flow, and the liquid binder is sprayed and granulated by adding the liquid binder. A crushing-type granulation method in which the powder is added to form large aggregates, which are then sheared with high-speed rotating blades; g. A liquid binder is added to the raw material powder and kneaded, and pressure is applied to this using the action of a screw, etc.; An extrusion molding granulation method is known, in which granulation is performed by extrusion from a perforated plate.

However, in (a) the transfer type granulation method and (i) the vibration type granulation method, the particle size of the granulated product becomes too large, making it unsuitable for food or pharmaceutical applications; The amount of fine powder that was previously generated increases. The C2 compression molding granulation method is carried out using equipment such as tablet machines and briquette machines, and the resulting granulated products are hard and have poor solubility, and are not originally suitable for use in food products. . d. The stirring type granulation method is
Although this is a relatively low-cost granulation method, the particle size of the granulated product varies widely, making it difficult to efficiently produce a granulated product with a desired particle size. e. In the fluidized granulation method, since the bulk density of the granulated product is small, the volume per unit weight of the product is large, the handling property is poor, and a large amount of fine powder is generated during granulation. f. The disintegration type granulation method is characterized by large variations in particle size, making it extremely difficult to efficiently produce a product with a desired particle size. g. The extrusion molding granulation method is widely used and is excellent in terms of yield and particle size uniformity, but granulated products have poor solubility, dispersibility, and fluidity as food sweeteners. It had problems with its properties, and its bulk specific gravity was low, making it inconvenient to handle.

In addition, there are processing methods that uniformly enhance sweetness by adding flavor to sweeteners and adding high-intensity sweeteners to recently developed low-quality sweeteners with low cariability and low-calorie functions. Although this has been desired, conventional spray drying methods have problems such as high cost and the need for heating.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for efficiently and easily producing granulated sugar having a desired particle size distribution without the drawbacks of the conventional methods described above.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention provides a method for producing granulated sugar using one or more powders selected from saccharides, sugar alcohols, and high-intensity sweeteners as a raw material powder. Inside the shaped container, while stirring and moving the raw material powder with a rotary blade rotating around the horizontal axis, liquid binder is added at 4.5 to 15% w/w of the raw material powder from above or from the side.
2.000 to 6.50 to agglomerate the raw material powder by dropping or spraying in an amount of 2.000 to 6.50 on the inside of the above rotating rotor blade.
This is a method for producing granulated sugar characterized by repeating the process of crushing and separating the above-mentioned aggregates, or further combining them with raw material powder by the action of an impactor rotated by an orpm.

In the method of the present invention, in the first step of granulation, the raw material powder is stirred and moved around a horizontal axis, and a liquid binder is added thereto to coagulate the powder. This first step is a method that belongs to a granulation method generally called stirring type granulation method, in which a liquid binder is added dropwise or sprayed while the raw material powder is fluidized by a rotary blade. begins to get wet, and then the powders gradually begin to coagulate together. Although the particles of this agglomerate are relatively large, they are crushed to a certain extent by the crushing effect of the rotary blades that fluidize the powder. If the cohesive strength of this aggregate is not so high, the crushing effect by this rotary blade is quite large, but when the raw material powder is sugar as in the present invention, the sugar solution partially dissolved by the addition of a liquid binder. Since the particles act to strengthen the bonds between particles and the cohesive strength of the aggregates increases, the crushing effect of the rotary blades cannot be expected to be very effective.

In the present invention, in order to improve this problem, in the second stage of granulation, an impacting body that rotates at a relatively high speed is provided inside the rotor blade, and the impact of this impacting body forces the aggregates to become more efficient. Crush well to produce small and uniform particles. In other words, the balance between agglomeration of the raw material powder in the first step of granulation and crushing of the agglomerates in the second step of granulation is important in order to obtain granulated sugar with a particle size suitable for use in foods and pharmaceuticals. be.

The granulation process was explained above using the terms 1st stage of granulation and 2nd stage of granulation, but granulation is carried out in one granulation chamber (cylindrical container) by rotating blades and impact. Since the body is rotated at the same time, it is not divided into two steps. However, for convenience of explanation, the first stage and second stage of granulation will be explained separately depending on the case.

In the granulation method according to the present invention, the balance between the amount of liquid binder added and the rotational speed of the impactor is also important in order to obtain granules with a desired particle size distribution. If the amount of liquid binder added is small, the particles will become fine, and if it is even smaller, only the amount commensurate with the amount of liquid binder added will be granulated, and most of the raw material powder will remain as it is.

On the other hand, if the amount of liquid binder added is large, the particles of the granulated product will be large, and if the amount is even larger, the mixture of raw material powder and liquid binder will partially form small lumps in the granulator.
The yield of granulated sugar with the desired particle size distribution becomes extremely low.

The amount of liquid binder added is 4.5 to 4.5 to the raw material powder.
It is 15% by weight. More specifically, it has been found that the optimum amount of liquid binder added varies greatly depending on the type of raw material powder. For example, if the raw material powder is sucrose, 4.5~
6% is the optimum amount and in case of reduced palatinose 12
~14% is the optimal amount, and in the case of maltitol ~6~
8% is the optimal amount.

Under the above binder amount, the rotational speed of the impact body is 2,
000 to 6.50 Orpm.

If the rotation speed is slower than this, it will not be possible to sufficiently crush the raw material powder aggregates generated in the first stage of granulation, and the added liquid binder will not be sufficiently dispersed in the raw material powder layer. As a result, the granulated product contains many large particles, making it impossible to efficiently obtain a product with the desired particle size. Furthermore, if the rotation speed is too high, the generated granules of appropriate size will be crushed.

Methods for adding the liquid binder include dropping it into the granulation chamber and spraying it. When you want to obtain a product with a small particle size more efficiently, or when you cannot obtain a product in which the auxiliary raw material is dissolved or suspended in a liquid binder and the auxiliary raw material is uniformly dispersed in the main raw material, etc. , the spraying method is more advantageous.

The raw material powder is selected from sugars, sugar alcohols, and high-intensity sweeteners, such as sucrose, glucose, palatinose,
Includes reduced palatinose, multi-ol, lactitol, stevia sweetener, aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Powders of two or more substances can also be used simultaneously.

The liquid binder is, for example, water or an aqueous solution containing one or more selected from saccharides, sugar alcohols, high-intensity sweeteners, flavoring agents, thickeners, and gelling agents. Other liquids may be mixed into the aqueous solution. Moreover, the liquid binder can also be a solution of the same substance as the raw material powder.

Furthermore, various materials can be added as auxiliary raw materials to the raw material powder in powder form, or dissolved or suspended in a binder. Depending on the type of auxiliary raw materials, it is possible to create products with various characteristics or functions. For example, as auxiliary raw materials, various fragrances, minerals, nutritional fortifiers such as vitamins, pigments, emulsifiers, swelling agents, etc. can be used depending on the purpose.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention, the raw material powder is palatinose or reduced palatinose, and the liquid binder is a solution containing a high-intensity sweetener. Alternatively, using both palatinose powder and sucrose powder as raw material powders,
The liquid binder is water. For example, if 70 parts of palatinose powdered sugar and 30 parts of sucrose powdered sugar are used as raw materials and are granulated by the method of the present invention, granulated sugar containing both powders uniformly can be easily produced.

In addition, maltitol, lactose, etc. are used as a vehicle (or bulking agent), and a high-intensity sweetener is added to this to reduce the sweetness level to 2.
It is possible to easily produce table sugar that is about 4 times as large. In such products, the amount of high-intensity sweetener added to the vehicle is very small (usually around 1-3%), so it is important that the high-intensity sweetener is uniformly dispersed in the vehicle. It is. If the two are simply mixed in powder form, specific gravity separation will occur due to vibrations during transportation, etc. According to the present invention, it is possible to produce a product that is uniformly mixed in two stages 1 and that does not undergo specific gravity separation due to vibration.

A longitudinal front view and a longitudinal side view of an apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the invention are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a cylindrical container, which has a feed port 2 for raw material powder at the top and a product outlet 3 at the bottom, which are opened and closed by appropriate means (not shown). The rotor 4 rotates at a relatively low speed in the direction of arrow A concentrically with the horizontal axis of the cylindrical container. For example, the rotor blades 4 are spaced 90 degrees apart from each other around the rotation axis.
It has a paddle 5 on each of four plates arranged in the direction of the angle. Each paddle fixed to adjacent plates is in a staggered position. By the rotation of the rotary blade 4, the raw material powder is lifted from the left to the upper right in FIG. 2, and then falls. It is also possible for the paddle to have an angle greater than 0 degrees to the axis of rotation in order to transfer the powder also in the direction of the axis of rotation.

During this stirring and movement process, the two raw material powders coagulate due to the action of the binder from the liquid binder dripping or spraying device 7.

The impact body 6 has a diameter of 2,000 to 6.5 on the inside of the rotary blade 4.
Rotates at high speed of 00 strokes. Preferably, the rotor blade 4 rotates in a direction B opposite to the rotation direction A.

The large aggregates that fall after being lifted up by the rotary blades 4 collide violently with the impactor and are crushed and separated into appropriate sizes.

Such a device can be said to be an excellent powder mixer as well as a granulator. That is, raw materials are charged into a granulation chamber made of a cylindrical container, the rotary blade is rotated at low speed and the impactor is rotated at high speed to uniformly mix and disperse the raw materials, and then granulation is performed using the granulation method of this method. Therefore, the state in which the powder is uniformly mixed and dispersed can be fixed as it is. Therefore, no subsequent gravity separation occurs. Alternatively, if the liquid dispersant can be dissolved or suspended in the binder liquid, it can be dissolved or suspended in the binder liquid, and the binder liquid can be used to granulate the dispersant according to the present method.

The granulated sugar produced by the method of the present invention has a small and uniform particle size. Therefore, it is highly suitable for use in food and medicine.

Other characteristics of this granulated sugar are that it has excellent fluidity, solubility, dispersibility, and tabletability.

For example, white sugar generally has invert sugar on the crystal surface.
, containing about 2%, has almost no fluidity. There are cases in which refined sugar containing invert sugar is absolutely necessary for use, and therefore there is a desire to improve its handling properties. When granulated using the method of the present invention using powdered granulated sugar as the main raw material and Visco (invert sugar liquid) as a binder, the invert sugar content increases to 2 to 3 times the invert sugar content of caster sugar. Also, granulated sugar with excellent fluidity can be obtained.

As for solubility, in special cases a material with poor solubility may be required, but - for boat fishing, a material with a fast dissolution rate is required. According to the method of the present invention, granulated sugar obtained by granulating powdered sucrose using water as a binder dissolves in water about twice as quickly as granulated sugar having the same particle size of 3 4 as the granulated sugar. In such granulated sugar produced by the method of the present invention, the powdered sugar particles are only lightly bonded by a very small amount of sucrose nectar dissolved in water, so when it is added to water,
The sucrose nectar, which served as a binder, dissolves in water and loses its binding strength, causing the granules to disintegrate within a short period of time, resulting in good solubility.

Regarding dispersibility, microscopic observation of the granulated sugar produced by the method of the present invention shows that the particle surface has many irregularities and has a very large specific surface area. Therefore, when a small amount of a substance is dispersed in this granulated sugar, the dispersed substance is retained in the concavities and convexities of the granulated sugar, so there is an advantage that re-separation is difficult to occur.

Regarding tabletability, as mentioned above, since the granule surface has many irregularities, when compressed by the pressure of the tablet machine, the particles become intertwined, making it possible to obtain a highly hard tablet. Since this granulated sugar has excellent fluidity, continuous direct compression is possible.

5 [Example] The following is a more detailed explanation using Examples. The apparatus used in the examples is roughly as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and has the following dimensions.

Cylindrical container length 15cm, inner diameter 20an, rotor blade maximum diameter 19.8cm, impact body diameter 6an Example 1 Using powdered granulated sugar as the raw material powder and water as the binder, the amount of binder added was varied. I did grain.

First, the raw material powder is placed in the device, the stirring blades and the impact body are rotated, and after the impact body reaches a predetermined rotational speed, the binder is sprayed for 4 minutes. After continuing the rotation for an additional 2 minutes, the product was removed and dried.

(Granulation conditions) Raw material powder: Granulated sugar powdered sugar (average particle size 12
μm, 50 μm or less 99% or more), amount of preparation: 1.311
/batch, Binder addition amount: 4 to 7% w/w (per raw material powder. The same applies below), Stirring blade rotation speed: 60 rpm, Impact body rotation speed + 4.20O
rpm, (drying conditions), leave to dry for about 2 hours at 90°C.

Granulated sugar having the particle size distribution shown in Table 1 was obtained.

In addition, r 20on in the display of particle size distribution mesh
J indicates what remained on the 20 mesh sieve, r 115
pJ indicates what passed through a 115 mesh sieve. M,A
, is the average particle diameter, and C, V are the coefficients of variation of the particle size distribution.

Example 2 Reduced Palatinose powder was used as the raw material powder, other conditions were the same as in Example 1, and granulation was carried out by varying the amount of binder added. The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Table 1 10.0% 12.0 13.0 14, O 15, O 7 8 Example 3 Maltitol was used as the raw material powder, other conditions were the same as in Example 1, and the amount of binder added Granulation was performed with various changes. The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 1.2 0.93 0.91 0.67 9 Example 4 910 g of palatinose powdered sugar and 390 g of granulated powdered sugar were used as raw material powders, and 65 g of water was used as a binder.
The granulation was carried out under the same conditions as in Example 1. The results are shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Binder - school transfer [吋mu-1-1, A, C,
V Regarding the samples of the above three particle sizes of this granulated product,
When the sugar composition was measured, the ratio of palatinose to sucrose was within the range of 70±1.5:30±1.5 for all particle size ranges.

Example 5 A table sugar was prepared using powdered raw materials as reduced Palatinose as a vehicle and aspartame as a sweetness enhancer, and water as a binder. The usage amount is as follows.

Reduced palatinose powder 1. hg aspartame 1B, 8g water
182 ml powder heating: First, reduce palatinose powder and aspartame powder were put into the device, and the rotor was turned 6.
0rpI11, rotate the impactor at 3.2001'Dm for 3 minutes to uniformly mix the reduced Palatinose powder and aspartame.

Granulation: Subsequently, the binder was sprayed and added to the above mixed state over a period of about 3 minutes, and the rotary blade and impactor were further rotated for 1 minute.

Drying: Take out the granules and dry at 50'C for about 2 hours.

The particle size distribution of the product is shown in Table 5. When the sweetness of the sieved samples was confirmed by sensory test for each particle size range, they all had almost the same sweetness and were 2.0 times sweeter than sucrose.

Table 5 Stand, FtpM, A, C, V.

Example 6 1.3 kg of granulated sugar powder as raw material powder, 34% concentration of Visco solution (invert sugar solution) as binder 10
Pelletization was carried out using 0 g and the other conditions were the same as in Example 1. The product obtained by drying has an invert sugar content of about 2.
Contains 5%. Table 6 shows the results of measuring the particle size distribution and fluidity of the product.

1 Table 6 11M,A C.V.

11% 84% 5% 85 0.63 - Length - Otsuni West - Pressure (Monthly non-January) Product of Example 6 346406 Comparative example (caster sugar) Unmeasurable 90°〈Example 7 Manufactured in Example 3 The dissolution rate was measured for a sample of Shina Nα3. Granulated sugar was used as a comparative example. Since the particle size of granulated sugar is 40 mesh or less, the sample of the present invention was also sieved to 40 mesh or less. The results are shown below. 7.

Measurement method: Put 200 ml of distilled water into a 200 ml glass beaker, keep it at 15°C, and stir with a magnetic cooler. Pour 30g of sample into this,
Measure the time from when it is added until it completely dissolves, and use this time (seconds) as the dissolution rate.

Table 7 Ittora Z1-ya--Kyoichi Mixed Legs Example 35 seconds Comparative example 75 seconds

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is also a vertical side view. The symbols in the figure indicate the following.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A method for producing granulated sugar using one or more powders selected from saccharides, sugar alcohols, and high-intensity sweeteners as raw material powder, in which the axis is horizontal. In a cylindrical container fixed to a cylindrical container, while stirring and moving the raw material powder with a rotor rotating around the horizontal axis, a liquid binder is added from above or from the side at 4.5 to 15% w/w of the raw material powder. agglomerating the raw material powder by dropping or spraying in an amount of 2,000 to 6,500 rpm inside the above rotating rotor
A method for producing granulated sugar, characterized in that the above-mentioned aggregates are repeatedly crushed and separated or further combined with raw material powder by the action of an impactor rotated at m. 2) The raw material powder consists of one or more selected from sucrose, glucose, palatinose, reduced palatinose, maltitol, lactitol, stevia sweetener, aspartame and acesulfame potassium, and the liquid binder is water or sugar. The method according to claim 1, which is an aqueous solution containing one or more selected from , sugar alcohol, high-intensity sweetener, flavoring agent, thickener, and gelling agent. 3) The method according to claim 1, wherein the raw material powder is palatinose or reduced palatinose, and the liquid binder is an aqueous solution containing a high-intensity sweetener.