Continuous Liquid Nitrogen Granulation Technology
Revolutionizing Traditional Freeze-Drying Process for Probiotics: Enhancing Production Efficiency and Probiotic Quality
Probiotics promote intestinal health, improve the immune system, and reduce the risk of diseases. As human focus on health increases, the demand for probiotic products is growing. Currently, probiotic manufacturers face two main challenges: 1. How to increase the number of live bacteria in probiotic products? 2. How to improve production efficiency and reduce costs? In response to market demands, Truking Technology has independently developed a cutting-edge liquid nitrogen granulator. This innovative technology breaks through the limitations of traditional freeze-drying processes in probiotics production, successfully overcoming key technical challenges in the field. The granulator has demonstrated excellent results in practical applications, pushing the boundaries of probiotic viability and significantly enhancing the overall quality of probiotic products.
limitations of traditional freeze-drying processes in probiotics production
The traditional freeze-drying process for probiotic production involves placing probiotic liquid directly on freeze-dryer shelves or trays, then freezing and vacuum drying through a refrigeration system to maximize the preservation of probiotic activity and stability. Currently, most probiotic manufacturers still use the traditional freeze-drying process, which faces the following challenges:
1. Probiotics concentrate has a high solid content ratio, resulting in high hardness after freeze-drying, easy clumping, and adhesion to trays. This makes it difficult to break up and unload, leading to low efficiency and yield (5%-10% residual after discharge).
2. In the traditional freeze-drying process, the liquid material is loaded onto flanged shelves or freeze-drying trays for pre-freezing. After freezing into a solid block, sublimation drying occurs. Only the upper surface is used for sublimation, which proceeds from top to bottom layer by layer. This results in a smaller sublimation surface area and a longer sublimation cycle.
3. Probiotic concentrate is highly sensitive to temperature. The number of live bacteria continuously decreases during various stages of freeze-drying. In the pre-freezing phase, the temperature of the concentrate drops from room temperature to -45°C, typically taking 2 hours. This process results in significant cell damage and loss of viability. During the sublimation drying phase, the temperature needs to be raised above 20°C, which also causes substantial cell injury and viability loss. Consequently, traditional freeze-drying techniques are inefficient in preserving probiotic viability, leading to a reduced number of viable cells in the final product.
To address these challenges and solve these problems, Truking Technology has independently developed a continuous liquid nitrogen granulator for use with Truking's fully automatic freeze-dryer to improve probiotic production efficiency, yield, and live bacteria count in the final product.
Application of Liquid Nitrogen Granulator in Probiotic Freeze-Drying
The continuous liquid nitrogen granulator is primarily used in the early stages of the freeze-drying process for probiotic production. It transforms the probiotic original liquid into droplets through a dripping system, which then falls into a circulating liquid nitrogen channel and flows with the liquid nitrogen. During this flow process, the droplets rapidly freeze into solid probiotic microspheres within 3-4 seconds. The probiotic microspheres and liquid nitrogen are then quickly separated through a screen, yielding probiotic microspheres that are transferred to the freeze-dryer chamber via a low-temperature tunnel for vacuum drying.
Truking TK-LYOBEADS Continuous Liquid Nitrogen Granulator
Truking's independently developed TK-LYOBEADS continuous liquid nitrogen granulator mainly consists of a granulation system, liquid nitrogen circulation system, cleaning system, and automatic control system. By rapidly freezing the material to be freeze-dried into uniform particles, it can replace the time-consuming pre-freezing process typically performed in freeze-dryers with rapid liquid nitrogen granulation and freezing.
All insulation layers in this equipment utilize vacuum insulation technology, providing a stable low-temperature environment for the materials. This ensures the stability, integrity, and controllability of materials during the freezing and granulation process. Moreover, the granulation process involves no mechanical shearing action, preventing physical cutting damage to materials (cells/proteins/probiotics, etc.).
Truking's TK-LYOBEADS liquid nitrogen granulator is suitable for early-stage process development to medium-scale batch production and is available in three models:
The dripping system uniformly produces liquid droplets with a diameter of 3-5mm, which are then rapidly frozen into solid microspheres, replacing the pre-freezing step of freeze-drying. Compared to traditional freeze-drying processes, the continuous liquid nitrogen granulator offers significant advantages in probiotic production:
1. Rapid freezing, higher live bacteria rate
Direct contact between live bacterial cultures and ultra-low temperature liquid nitrogen creates a significant temperature differential, resulting in rapid cooling. This process forms fine ice crystals within the solution, allowing for instant freezing of probiotics with minimal physical damage to the cells. Compared to traditional freeze-drying methods, this technique can increase the survival rate of probiotic bacteria by 20-40%.
2. Increased specific surface area, shortened freeze-drying cycle
After granulation into microspheres using liquid nitrogen, the evaporative surface area is 15 times that of traditional freeze-drying. This significantly enhances freeze-drying sublimation efficiency and shortens the freeze-drying cycle, typically reducing it by 30-50%.
3. Small microsphere diameter, improved freeze-dried product quality
Traditional freeze-drying methods typically involve thick material layers (generally 10-15mm), resulting in high sublimation drying resistance. This can lead to freeze-drying defects such as the collapse of the original liquid and uneven sublimation. In contrast, the liquid nitrogen granulation + freeze-drying approach offers lower sublimation resistance, reducing the risk of collapse. This method produces freeze-dried materials with a consistent appearance and uniform moisture content.
4. Uniform particles, no adhesion to shelves, high yield
The system is compatible with various specification drip heads for quick disassembly and replacement. A peristaltic pump is employed for liquid transfer, accommodating various types of feed solutions. This ensures a consistent granulation rate while maintaining uniform particle size (Figure 3). After freeze-drying, the granules retain their spherical shape without adhering to the shelves. The process boasts high unloading efficiency and exceptionally high yield rates (typically over 99%).
5. Reduced overall energy consumption
The use of liquid nitrogen pre-freezing + vacuum drying, as a replacement for compressor pre-freezing + vacuum drying, results in a 15-23% reduction in overall energy consumption when calculated based on the same effective live bacteria count output.
6. Turnkey solution for liquid nitrogen granulation freeze-drying
Truking Technology offers turnkey solutions for liquid nitrogen granulation and freeze-drying. The company provides a complete package including liquid nitrogen tunnels, automated tray loading systems, and vacuum freeze-dryers, offering a one-stop solution for probiotic liquid nitrogen granulation and freeze-drying.
Utilizing liquid nitrogen granulation and freezing technology effectively enhances the viability of probiotics and extends their shelf life, creating more business opportunities and generating greater benefits for probiotic manufacturers. As biotechnology continues to advance, the application prospects for liquid nitrogen freezing technology will become increasingly widespread. It is poised to become a crucial method in the production and application of probiotics, enzymes, cells, proteins, and other related fields.