Intensification of Vacuum Sublimation Drying of Alginate–Chitosan-Based Matrixes at Various Stages of the Process

Abstract

This work involves the intensification of vacuum sublimation drying of alginate–chitosan biopolymer matrices at each stage of the process: from preliminary freezing to the drying itself. The main part of the article presents and describes the designs of installations for carrying out the process of freezing with ultrasound exposure and drying with infrared and ultrasound exposure. A series of experiments have been conducted to study the kinetics of freezing and drying under various conditions. It is found that the use of ultrasound at the freezing stage allows the formation of materials with wide directional channels in the volume of the polymer framework, which subsequently leads to the active mass transfer of moisture at the drying stage.