Paper No.
: 04
Paper Title: Unit Operations in Food Processing
Module-33: Principles of Extrusion
What is extrusion?
Extrusion is a method of forming substances by forcing them through a
perforated plate or die to produce tubes, rods, or other desired shapes.
The main purpose of extrusion is to increase the variety of foods in the
diet by producing a range of products with different shapes, textures,
colours and flavours from basic ingredients.
Extrusion cooking ?
It is the process of cooking moistened starchy and / or proteinaceous
food materials by combination of heat, pressure and mechanical shear.
Extrusion cooking is a high temperature short-time (HTST) process.
Extrusion cooking technologies are used for cereal and protein
processing in the food and, closely related, pet foods and feeds sectors.
Examples for Extrusion Foods
Pastas
Breakfast cereals
Multigrain snacks
Pretzels
Jelly beans
Precooked rice
What is an extruder?
Extruder is a device to shape by forcing material through a
specially designed opening often after a previous heating of the material.
An extruder is a thermodynamic unit.
A typical extruder consists of a power supply to operate the main screw, a
feeder to meter in the raw ingredients, and a barrel, which surrounds the
screw.
The screw conveys the raw material through towards a shaped hole, the die that
shapes the product.
Extrusion can take place under high temperatures and pressures or can be simply a
non-cooking, forming process.
The processing units have evolved from simple conveying devices to become very
sophisticated in the last decade.
Popularity of Extrusion Cooking
Versatility: A wide range of products, many of which cannot be
produced easily by any other process, is possible by changing the
ingredients, extruder operating conditions and dies
Cost: Extrusion has lower processing costs and higher productivity
than other cooking and forming processes
Productivity: Extruders can operate continuously with high out put
Product quality: Extrusion cooking involves high temperatures
applied for a short time, retaining many heat sensitive components
of a food
Environmentally-friendly: As a low-moisture process, extrusion
cooking does not produce significant process effluents, reducing
water treatment costs and levels of environmental pollution.
Principle of Extrusion Cooking
The raw materials are allowed into the extruder barrel and the screw(s)
then convey the food along it.
Further down the barrel, smaller flights restrict the volume and increase the
resistance to movement of the food. As a result, it fills the barrel and the
spaces between the screw flights and becomes compressed.
Finally, it is forced through one or more restricted openings (dies) at the
discharge end of the barrel as the food emerges under pressure from the
die, it expands to the final shape and cools rapidly as moisture is flashed
off as steam.
High temperature of operation in presence of water promotes
gelatinisation of starch components and stretching of expandable
components.
Classification of Extruders
Extruders can be classified in to two categories Based on operation and
Contraction
Extruder
(Based on Operations)
Hot Cold
Extrusion Extrusion
Flow chart 1: Classification of extruders based on operation
Hot Extrusion: If the food is heated above 100ºC the process is
known as extrusion cooking.
Cold Extruders: If the food is heated below 100ºC the process is
known as extrusion cooking.
Extruders
(Based on Construction)
Single screw Twin screw
extruder extruder
Counter rotating Co-rotating
Flow chart 1: Classification of extruders based on operation
Single-screw extruders
These contain a single rotating screw in a
metal barrel, and come in varying patterns.
Single-screws usually consist of three sections
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[Link] or compression
3. Metering
.
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The portion of the screw which accepts the food materials at the feed
port usually the feed section is characterized by deep flights so that the
product can easily fall in to the flights.
The function of the feed section is to assure sufficient material moved
or conveyed down the screw and the screw is completely filled.
[Link] section
The portion of the screw between the feed section and the metering
section is called as compression section.
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The portion of the section nearest the discharge of the extruder which is
normally characterized by having very shallow flights. The shallow
flights increase the shear rate in the channel to the maximum level
with in the screw.
Single-screw extruders are usually characterized by their length to diameter
(L/D) ratio and their compression ratio, which is the ratio of the maximum
channel depth to the minimum channel depth.
The most commonly used compression ratio is 3 to 1. The throughput
(mass flow rate) capacity of a single-screw extruder is linked to screw speed,
screw geometries, and material characteristics.
Extruder Parts & Components
Extrusion Drive: The Power supply is done by Electric motors the
capacity 300 KW (400 hp). The speed normally less than 500 rpm.
Thrust bearing must be able to sustain the load giving an expected life of
20,000 to 50,000 hr.
Feeder: A device providing a uniform delivery of food ingredients which
are often sticky, non-free-flowing substances. Some types of feeders
commonly used are vibratory feeders, variable speed auger and weigh
belts.
Barrel: The barrel is made up of segments. The barrel is fabricated by
claming or bloting together several segments make it relatively easy to
alter the interior conformation of the barrel and to replace the discharge
section which wears the most rapidly.
Screw (single or twin): These are the screw which conveys the
materials. Diameter of the screw of a single screw extruder normally
varies between 2-15 cm, their length to diameter ratio varies
between 8-20 and helix angle between 20o – 30o .
Die or nozzle: It will give shape to the products. The size, shape,
number and location of the dies or die insert all the independent
variables.
Special arrangements : Eg: knife, co-extrusion unit.
Examples of screw element variations
Large Pitch Conveying: Its conveying capacity is more.
Small Pitch: conveying its conveying capacity is low.
Kneading or Cut Flight: These are the kneaders or cutters it will
mix or cut the materials.
Shear lock: High pressure & inject is required.
Reverse Pitch: Higher pressure is required
Advantages of Single-screw extruders
It is a short time process
No by & waste products
Versatility in application
Twin-screw extruders
The term ‘twin-screw’ applies to extruder s with two screws of
equal length placed inside the same barrel. It consists of two
parallel screws in a barrel.
It is more complicated than single screw extruders, but at the
same time provides much more flexibility and better control.
Fig: 3 Single screw barrel.
Twin-screw extruders are four types as follows
Counter- rotating twin- screw extruder
Non-intermeshed, counter rotating
Intermeshed, counter rotating
Co-rotating twin-screw extruders
Non-intermeshed, co-rotating
Intermeshed, co-rotating
From these four types of twin-screw extruders, co-rotating,
intermeshed screw type has found the widest acceptance in food
industry.
Counter- rotating twin- screw extruder
In the extruder screw rotates in the opposite direction
Fig: 4 Counter- rotating twin- screw extruders
Co-rotating twin-screw extruders
In the co-rotating position the screw rotates in the same direction.
Fig: 5 Co-rotating twin-screw extruders
Advantages of Twin Screw Extruders
Handle viscous, oily, sticky or very wet material and some other
products which will slip in single screw extruder, (it is possible
to add up to 25% fat in a twin screw extruder).
Less wear in smaller part of the machine than in single screw
extruder.
Difference between Single Screw and Twin Screw Extruders
Single screw extrude is simple, using rotating belt way with a
constant un adjustable spindle speed.
It can get good blending through high speed operation in short
time.
The conveying capacity of single extruder is poor under high
pressure. Compared to the same power twin-screw extruder
production of single-screw extruder is lower.
Advantages of twin-screw extruders over Single screw
The throughput of these systems can be independent of feed rate
and screw speed.
Process variables include degree of fill, temperature-shear
history, and heat transfer, all of which may influence the
properties of the extruded product.
Twin-screw extruders will accommodate a wider range of
particle sizes in the ingredients.
Factors Affecting Extrusion Cooking
Rheological properties of the food
The properties of the feed material have an important influence on
the texture and colour of the product; the factors are:
The type of feed materials
Their moisture content
The physical state of the materials
Chemical composition(a mounts and types of starches, proteins,
fats and sugars.
The pH of the moistened material.
Feed rate and Screw speed
Barrel temperature and Die characteristics
Screw design
Operating characteristics
The most important operating parameters in an extruder are
Temperature : Increase in extrusion temperature results in higher degree
of gelatinisation.
Pressure
Diameter of the die apertures: Increase in diameter reduces
gelatinisation of starch.
Shear rate.
Moisture
If moisture increases viscosity ,torque ,product temperature are
decreases bulk density increases (expansions die pressure decreases).
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