Industry-scale spray-drying microencapsulation of orange aroma

The article describes an attempt to solve a real industrial problem, connected with the not very efficient enclosure of orange aroma during industrial microencapsulation, by the replacement of conventional mixing by single-stage homogenization during feed emulsion preparation. The powders obtained from solutions after 17 MPa homogenization were characterized by a lower water content and better flowability. The powders from solutions after 25 MPa homogenization showed better myrcene retention. An additional aim of this work was to investigate the physicochemical properties of powders obtained from the cyclone container and the drying chamber. This approach is connected with the fact that older generation spray dryers do not have systems protecting against local powder deposits in the chamber. In such situations, in order to reduce losses, the powder from the cyclone container and the one from chamber are mixed together, even if they have different properties. The results obtained show the significant differences between the powders collected from the cyclone container and the chamber of the spray dryer in terms of water content, bulk density, particle-size distribution and aroma retention. The powders obtained from the chamber were characterized by a lower water content, better flowability and a lower porosity value. Hierarchical cluster analysis confirmed the differences between the investigated microcapsule variants

Design evolutions of Molten Salt Fast Reactor

International audienceThe CNRS has focused R&D e˙orts on the development of a new reactor concept called the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR). The MSFR, characterized by a circulating liquid fuel and a fast neutron spectrum, has been identified as a very interesting long term alternative to solid fuelled fast neutron systems in the Gen4 International Forum.MSRs are liquid-fuelled reactors so that they are flexible in terms of operation or design choices, but they are very di˙erent in terms of design and safety approach compared to solid-fuelled reactors. The MSFR system includes three di˙erent circuits: the fuel circuit, the intermediate circuit and the power conversion circuit, together with normal and emergency draining tanks and on-site fuel processing units. This paper will focus on the new designs developed for the fuel circuit and the emergency draining system of the MSFR in the frame of the SAMOFAR European project. The fuel circuit, defined as the circuit containing the fuel salt during power generation, includes the core cavity and the recirculation/cooling sectors. These new designs result from physical and preliminary safety studies such as for the fuel circuit optimizing the use of the molten salt both as fuel and coolant, defining the operating procedures and minimizing the fuel leakage risks. Additional requirements are considered for the emergency draining system to be able to confine the fuel and to evacuate the residual heat over very long time periods (months) with no human intervention and to guaranty that under no circumstance the salt may reach criticality in this area