Drying is a significant step in the production of
carrageenan. However, current drying process still deals with
too long drying time and carrageenan quality degradation. The
foam mat drying is an option to speed up drying process as
well as retaining carrageenan quality. In this case, the carrageenan
was mixed with egg white (albumin) as foaming agent
and methyl cellulose for foam stabilizer. The foam will break
the carrageenan gels and creates the porous structure resulting
higher surface area for water transfer. This research studied the
effect of egg white and methyl cellulose on carrageenan
drying at various air temperature, and thickness. As a response,
the water content versus time was observed and the
drying rate was estimated.Meanwhile, the carrageenan texture
was verified by X-RD (X-Ray Diffraction) and TEM (Transmission
Electron Microscopy). Results showed that the presence
of egg white stablized by methyl cellulose can speed up
drying rate as well as retaining the crystalline structure of
carrageenan. The higher albumin content, the faster drying
rate. However, the addition of albumin and methyl cellulose
restricted not more than 30 % in the mixture for keeping
carrageenan quality and purity. By adding egg white 20 %
and methyl cellulose 10 %, the water diffusion and drying rate
can be two fold compared with carrageenan drying without
foam. The improvement can be higher at the higher temperature
and thinner carrageenan sheets.