THE PRODUCTION OF PALM SUGAR FROM UNFERMENTED PALM JUICE USING SPRAY DRYER: TWO-LEVEL FACTORIAL DESIGN APPROACHES

摘要

The research concerns with the preliminary study of the production of palm sugar fromrnpalm sap using spray dryer in order to improve the product quality by controlling therncolour of sugar in which the palm sugar produced conventionally gives sugar havingrnbrown colour. The variables considered in this experiment are concentration (20 –rn40%), temperature (140 – 160 Oc) and pressure (20 – 40 psig), while the parameters ofrnexperimental result are density, moisture content, and colour. The experimental data isrnanalyzed using a factorial design at two levels. The experimental results show thatrnincreasing dryer-air temperature reduces the palm sugar density around 47.77 kg/L,rnwhile the effect of concentration and pressure can not be separately interpreted. Thernmain effect of variable on moisture content of palm sugar in the range is not significantrnand can be ignored. The increasing pressure of atomization can not be separatelyrninterpreted since there is an interaction between pressure and temperature. By the use ofrnspray dryer, the colour of palm sugar can be improved to be white.