Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Convective drying of spirulina in thin layer

H
elene Desmorieux *, Nadege Decaen
LAGEP-UMR 5007 CNRS, University Claude Bernard-Lyon 1, 43 bd du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
Received 13 January 2004; accepted 19 April 2004

Abstract
Spirulina is a microalgae with therapeutic and nutritional properties. It is now industrially produced and dried by spray drying
into a powder. The drying method of small productions facilities in addition to a need for a different form of presentation, leads us
to study the drying of spirulina by convection. In this study, spirulina sorption isotherm is established through different methods at
25 and 40 °C. The results vary slightly in function of the method but do not vary in function of the temperature. A simple Henderson
model is proposed to represent the isotherm. The drying by convection is characterized by the kinetics experimental drying in order
to study the influences of temperature and air velocity. Under conditions of temperature and air velocity of less than 40 °C–2.5 m/s,
a first drying phase appears on the curves. By normalizing, the use of the drying characteristic curve allows the regrouping of curves
and the representation of thin layer spirulina convective drying by a polynomial function.
Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Spirulina; Convective drying; Sorption isotherm; Thin layer drying

1. Introduction esting due to its therapeutic and dietetic effects. Because

Spirulina is a cyanobacteria, called arthrospira pla-
tensis, or more commonly blue algae, appeared on the
Earth 3500 million years ago. Spirulina consists of cells
which measure 3.5–10 lm wide and are lined up side by
side. The filament has the form of a spiral with a diameter
of 20–100 lm, or it becomes straight in artificial culture.
Spirulina has 60% proteins including 12 essential amino
acids, 10 vitamins, and also therapeutic properties: the
phycocyanin which is anti-oxidizing and anti-inflamma-
tory (Romay et al., 1998), polysaccharides (Filali Mou-
him, Cornet, Fontaine, Fournet, & Dubertret, 1993)
which have anti-tumor and anti-viral effects (Gao & Wu,
2000; Mishima et al., 1998) and gamma linolenic acid
(GLA) used for its cholesterol reduction effect (Samuels,
Mani, Iyer, & Nayak, 2002). Its use is not toxic (Cham-
orro, Salazar, Favila, & Bourges, 1996). Since 1960s,
spirulina has been artificially cultivated for its nutritional
qualities. In certain developing countries, it is used in
health clinics to treat malnutrition (Fox, 1996; Jourdan,
Ancel, & Boileau, 1999). Western countries find it inter-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-04-72-43-18-67; fax: +33-04-72-
43-16-99.
E-mail address: desmorieux@lagep.univ-lyon1.fr (H. Desmorieux).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.04.021
of its high protein content the European Space Agency
selected it for the astronauts diet (Lasseur et al., 1996).
In some countries in the South such as in Chad it is
consumed as food in sauces. However at this time in the
North, it is rarely used except as a food supplement in
capsules. Thus for the first time the problem of pro-
cessing spirulina for regular consumption in a Western
culture arises with respect to incorporating this food in
the diet of the astronauts. The chosen drying process
have to be adapted to the needs of this specific context
(Desmorieux & Garro, 1999). Two restraints can illus-
trate the specific context as using it as food: the daily
consumption requires presentation other then that cap-
sules or powder and a limiting factor for its consump-
tion as food in the Western countries is its green color
after mixing. Currently, due to its high protein content,
it is generally dried either by spray drying for the big
food processors in Japan, in the United States and in
China, or drying on support by hot air convection after
extrusion for the small cultures. In this paper, convective
drying is studied. This drying process allows us to
envisage forms other than powder. This study also fur-
nishes bibliographical data that characterizies spirulina
convective drying, to our knowledge, is not in the
current scientific literature. This work provides to help
498 H. Desmorieux, N. Decaen / Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503

Nomenclature

Aw water activity X mean moisture content in the product

f characteristic function (kgw /kgdm )
Ta air temperature (°C) X , Xi , Xcr moisture content, -at t, -initial, -critical
RH relative humidity (%) (kgw /kgdm )
v, v1 drying rate, first period drying rate Xeq equilibrium moisture content (kgw /kgdm )
(kgw /kgdm /s) / reduced moisture content
va air velocity

in determining the size of the convective thin layers
drying manufacturing units.
In this paper, to characterize the drying of spirulina
by hot air, the air-spirulina thermodynamic equilibrium
is carried out by determining sorption isotherm using
fresh spirulina. Several methods are used at 25 °C and at
the drying temperature of 40 °C. This shows the influ-
ence of methods and temperature. Then, the influence of
air conditions are studied by experimental drying
kinetics for 40 < Ta < 60 °C and 1:9 < va < 3:8 m/s. The
complexity of the product due to its biological origin
brings us to apply the characteristic drying curve
method to the kinetics.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sorption isotherm
Spirulina is obtained from two different farms in the
South of France. The sorption isotherm is established
with 3 measurement methods, that are based on the
principal presented in Fig. 1. This allows comparison in
the case of spirulina:
(a) by several relative air humidity values fixed each by
salt solution;
(b) by dew point temperature measurement in balance
above the product;
(c) by mass variation differential measurement for each
level of relative air humidity (Dynamic vapor sorp-
tion).
The first (non-automatic) method, consists in placing
each sample in a small sealed enclosure. The relative air
humidity is fixed by a sulphuric acid solution which is
placed under the sample, Fig. 2(a). The solutions were
prepared with distilled water, with concentrations of
20%, 40%, 50%, 60% in weight of acid. The known
partial vapor pressure above this solution gives the
corresponding values of relative air humidity according
to the concentration and the temperature. The equili-
brium moisture is reached and measure when the weight
is constant. The moisture content is then measured.
The second method uses an activity meter FA-S/1
(Food Analysis Science and Technology). It consists in
placing six different homogeneous samples of spirulina,
around 0.5 ml, with a known moisture content, in a
small volume of air until equilibrium is reached, Fig.
2(b). After 1–10 mn, the equilibrium relative air
humidity is reached above the product and measured
through the dew point temperature.
The third method, dynamic vapor sorption (Levoguer
& Williams, 1997), is carried out with only one sample
of 10 mg spirulina placed in a cupel, Fig. 2(c). These
measurements were carried out at the ‘‘Surface Mea-
surement Systems’’ company in London. The spirulina
is first dried with a relative air humidity of 0.1% to
establish the dry reference mass. Then a 25 or 40 °C air
flow is passed over the sample with its relative humidity
increasing by increments of 10%. The sample becomes
wet. To obtain the desorption isotherm the relative air
humidity is then decreased by increments until reaching
0.1%. The measurement of the mass loss is measured for
each increment when the drying rate dm/dt becomes
lower than 0.002% per minute. This mass variation di-
rectly provides the moisture content of spirulina for a
given air humidity.

2.2. Convective drying

Fig. 1. Principle of the 3 desorption isotherm methods used for Fresh spirulina is filtered on 20 lm filter. The initial
spirulina. moisture content can vary from 3 to 9 kgw /kgdm according
 H. Desmorieux, N. Decaen / Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503 499

Fig. 2. Methods of measure of moisture content in spirulina. (a) Moisture content after equilibrium in a fixed relative humidity of air. (b) Measure of
equilibrium drew bulb temperature of air for a fixed moisture content of spirulina. (c) Measure of mass variation under air relative humidity var-
iation.


dX
v dt X  Xeq
f ð/Þ ¼ ¼   versus /¼ ð1Þ
v1 dX X cr  Xeq
dt 1
X is the average moisture content and Xcr the average
critical moisture content at the transition. Since the
Fig. 3. Principle of convective dryer. constant drying rate does not appear clearly by most
biological materials, the short period where the drying
to the filtration and in function of the spiral or straight rate is maximum is considered often as the first period.
structure. The spirulina thin layer convective drying is The function f characterizes the drying of the product
carried out in a dryer by closed loop hot air circulation, with fixed dimensions.
see in Fig. 3. The temperature and air velocity are fixed.
Relative air humidity is measured by hygrometer. The
apparatus allows the recording of the mass of spirulina in 3. Results and discussion
function of time. Measurements are established in a
temperature range of 40–60 °C and with air velocity from 3.1. Sorption isotherm
1.9 to 3.8 m/s. Above 60 °C, there is degradation of
phycocyanin and an increase of the Maillard reactions. The sorption isotherm translates the equilibrium
The maximum air velocity value is limited to avoid pos- relation between the water activity in the product and its
sible loss of dry matter by air current, since the thin layer moisture content. With equilibrium and constant tem-
of spirulina shrinks and cracks during drying. perature, the activity of water is considered equal to the
relative humidity of the air. Fig. 4 shows the procedure
employed for establishing desorption isotherm by DVS
2.3. Data treatment at 25 °C. Fig. 5(a) and (b) show the experimental results
obtained by the three methods at 25 °C. An enlargement
After measuring the dry matter, it is possible to ob- on the Fig. 5(b), details the part concerned with drying
tain average moisture content evolution in function of
drying time. The data are smoothed and after deriva-
tion, it is possible to obtain the drying rate curve
according to the average moisture content. The influence
of the parameters can be observed from these curves.
Foodstuffs have heterogeneous structure, various
composition throughout the sample. So, the character-
istic drying curve (abbreviated CDC) method (Keey &
Suzuki, 1974) is chosen. This method consists in nor-
malizing the moisture content and the drying rate. For
certain products, it allows a single normalized drying
rate curve with determined spreading out and for vari-
ous given drying conditions. This curve is obtained by
plotting f ð/Þ versus /, f ð/Þ is the drying rate v nor- Fig. 4. Relative humidity of air and mass of spirulina by dynamic
malized by the drying rate during first period v1 : vapor sorption, at 25 °C.
500 H. Desmorieux, N. Decaen / Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503
Fig. 5. (a) and (b) Sorption isotherm for spirulina, at 25 °C,
0 < RH < 100%, obtained by three methods and the detail for
0 < RH < 90% compared to the sorption of powder spirulina after
spray drying from Jassby (1989).
Fig. 6. Experimental sorption isotherm by 38 and 40 °C, by two
methods.
where moistures are lower than 90%. Fig. 6 presents the
obtained values of the isotherm at 38–40 °C.
The results obtained by the three methods have the
same tendency. One notes a difference, which are similar
at the two temperatures, between the measurement
methods. These results obtained by the rapid dew tem-
perature method, show that for a moisture content
equilibrium approaching 3 kgw /kgdm , spirulina is satu-
rated (see Fig. 5(a)). After mechanical extraction of
water by filtration, this experimental value corresponds
indeed to the minimal moisture content value that could
be obtained at the laboratory at the beginning of drying.
The measurement by dynamic vapor sorption leads to
a value of equilibrium moisture content which is slightly
lower than the two other methods. These measurements
are compared with spray dried spirulina sorption iso-
therm (Jassby, 1989). For the activities of water higher
than 0.65, the values are lower than the experimental
results with a variation which increases with relative
humidity.
Concerning the isotherm obtained from the spray
dried powder or, even less, that obtained by DVS, where
the dry mass is obtained initially by contact with a dry
air, the difference in the experimental results are mainly
due to the product pretreatment before measurement of
the isotherm. Fig. 7, using DVS, effectively shows a
slight hysteresis resulting from a sorption until a relative
humidity of 80%, followed of a desorption. This hys-
teresis explains the variations of measurements found in
pre-dried spirulina. If one considers the industrial
standards, the dried spirulina should not have a mois-
ture content of more than 7% in wet base, or 7.5% in dry
base (Henrikson, 2000). The value of the relative
humidity limits corresponding to this standard varies
from 25% to 45% according to the curves of this work
and the relevant literature (see Fig. 5(b)). This variation
is to be taken into account when determining the
appropriate RH of air during storage which should thus
not exceed more than 45%.
According to these curves one finds a hygroscopicity
comparable (the shape of the curve and the corres-
ponding values) to that of the agro-foodstuffs which
are very hygroscopic such as bananas or onions
(Desmorieux, 1992; Iglesia & Chirife, 1982) or pine-
apples (Wolf, Spiess, & Jung, 1973). Contrary to these
food products, spirulina is different in that it has an
desorption isotherm which is not influenced by the air
temperature in the studied temperature range 25–40 °C.
There are several empirical models to simulate the
sorption isotherms found in the literature (Fito,
Gimeno, Vidal, & Serrano, 1989; Iglesia & Chirife,
1982). We propose to apply the model of Henderson, in
Belahmdi, Belghit, Mira, and Kaoua (1993) with at
25 °C:
 ð0:71 Þ
1  lnð1  Aw Þ
Xeq ¼ ð2Þ
100 2:33  104 ð1:8Ta þ 492Þ
where Aw is the water activity, equal to the relative
humidity in percent, at the thermodynamic equilibrium.
Fig. 7. Sorption–desorption hysteresis of spirulina at 25 °C, obtained
by DVS method.
 H. Desmorieux, N. Decaen / Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503 501

Fig. 8. Model of Henderson compared to the experimental sorption

isotherm at 25, 38 and 40 °C, obtained by three methods.

Ta is the temperature in °C. In Fig. 8, this model cor-

rectly simulates the experimental values of sorption
isotherm for a water activity less than 95% (conditions
at convective or radiative drying).
Certain authors maintain as in (Belahmdi et al., 1993)
that the temperature influence is very weak in the range
25–60 °C for certain foodstuffs. Thus, for the range 25–
40 °C studied, the relation becomes:
  1
1  lnð1  Aw Þ ð0:7Þ
Xeq ¼ ; 25 < Ta < 40 °C ð3Þ
100 0:124
Under these conditions, the isotherm shows that the
thermodynamic air-spirulina equilibrium is strongly
influenced by temperature. However, the spirulina pre-
treatment operations brings to light an important im-
pact on the isotherm and probably on its internal
structure.
Fig. 9. Influence of air temperature on spirulina thin layer drying, by
3.2. Convective drying: influence of external parameters different air velocity.

In order to obtain the characteristic of product dry-

ing, one needs to establish the drying curves. They
correspond to the product drying kinetics to reach the
equilibrium moisture content given by the sorption
isotherm.
Figs. 9 and 10 show the influence of air temperature
and velocity on the drying rate. The curves are similar in
form. The curves by 60 °C–3.8 m/s show the reproduc-
ibility. The maximal drying rate values are strongly
dependant on the air temperature and velocity. The
different period are more or less noted in function of
external conditions. The product is conserved at 2–3 °C
before being placed in the drying chamber, then, the
curves show a period, that correspond to the rise in
temperature. At smooth conditions (low temperature
and or low air velocity), the water loss can be maximal
until reaching a value of 40% of the initial moisture
content (see in Fig. 9(a) and (c)): these external air
conditions allows the internal water transfer equal or
greater than the external one.
For harsh conditions, the constant drying rate does
not appear, it is only seen as a high point on the curve,
whose value increases with the air temperature and
velocity. Its value is not proportional to the variation of
these parameters. For air temperature lower than 40 °C
and air velocity lower than 2.5 m/s, that mean a drying
rate below 1 gw /kgdm /s, the curves allows us to suppose
the existence of a long first drying period, see Figs. 9(a)
and (b) and 10(a). Under more harsh conditions, the
first drying period is not clearly marked. Above these
values (40 °C, 2.5 m/s), the drying rate presents a max-
imum limit of 2–2.2 gw /kgdm /s (see Figs. 9(c) and 10(b)).
This upper limit can result from reactions on the surface
which form a crust that limits internal heat and mass
transfers. These reactions are more prevalent and rapid
at higher temperature.
A final or third period can sometimes be consid-
ered in the drying process (Voilley & Moyne, 1990).
For spirulina, with a moisture content less than
502 H. Desmorieux, N. Decaen / Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503
Fig. 10. Effect of air velocity for an air temperature of 40 and 60 °C.
0.6–1 kgw /kgdm , all the kinetics are nearly the same curve
and thus no longer depend on the external air condi-
tions. The dependent factor of the kinetics is then only
the water diffusion in the product, in function of the
moisture content gradient.
3.3. The characteristic drying curve method
The CDC method allows to normalized the experi-
mental kinetics for one dimension and one type of
drying. The critical moisture content is determinate
from the drying rate curve at the end of the first period
or, then there is not a constant drying rate, for the
maximal drying rate. Applying the CDC method to the
experimental drying curves allows to regroup them in
the Fig. 11. The falling rate period is then represented
with a concave curve.
With the assumed hypothesis, the following polyno-
mial law will be proposed to connect the two normalized
parameters / and f :
f ð/Þ ¼ 0:9/2 þ ð1 þ 0:9Þ/
That function represents the regrouping of the curves
that allows to characterize the thin layers convective
drying process for spirulina for the temperature range
from 40 to 60 °C and air velocity varying from 1.9 to 3.8
m/s. It allows to obtain the resident time of the product
to design a dryer for these range conditions.
Fig. 11. Characteristic drying curve for convective drying of thin layers
of spirulina.
4. Conclusion
The spirulina sorption isotherm was measured and
the convective thin layer drying characterized by the
drying kinetics. Spirulina is very hygroscopic in the 25–
40 °C temperature range and the equilibrium moisture
content is not dependent of the temperature. The dif-
ference between the results are more dependent on the
methods of measurements, which implies a necessary
safety margin to allow a final moisture content corres-
ponding to food conservation standards. The equilib-
rium moisture content at saturation is near to 3 kgw /
kgdm , which is the minimal moisture content that we
obtain at the beginning of the drying process. The study
of the spirulina convective thin layer drying shows the
influence of the air temperature and velocity. For
external conditions of soft drying at 40 °C and air
velocity above 2.5 m/s, a almost constant drying rate
period appears. For harder conditions, there is not
constant drying curve and the drying rate is limited to
2.2 gw /kgdm /s. A third period appears at the end of
drying, and all the kinetics are nearly the same curve.
That phase can correspond to the limiting transfer
through the membranes cells. The utilization of the
characteristic drying curve method makes it possible to
regroup and characterize thin layer drying by a poly-
nomial function for the experimental conditions of this
study.
ð4Þ
Acknowledgements
This research work was supported by the ESA,
European Spatial Agency. The authors want to thank
Mr. J.P. Jourdan and Mr. R. Nogier for the biomass
and Dr. Attwool and Dr. Fetsh from the SMS society
for the DVS measure.
 H. Desmorieux, N. Decaen / Journal of Food Engineering 66 (2005) 497–503
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