Micro-structure of particles produced by fluidized bed agglomeration of soft materials

The structure of agglomerates produced in spray fluidized beds out of rigid primary particles has been investigated in a pre-cursor project. It was shown, how morphological descriptors (among others, porosity, fractal properties) can be extracted from X-ray micro-tomography scans, and how such descriptors depend on operating parameters of the particle formulation process. This investigation is now being extended to soft primary particles, which are of great interest for the food and pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, the structural features of maltodextrin agglomerates are investigated, including the development of new image analysis methods that can be applied to primary particles of irregular shape and non-uniform size.