Drying of fermented proteins for food applications

The internship

This project investigates the suitability of industrial drying technologies (e.g. spray-drying, thin film-drying, refractive window drying ect.) as the final processing step in the production of the Farmless fermented proteins for food applications. In this internship, you will help with the design (process conditions and equipment requirements) of this processing step, through literature research and experimental work. Furthermore, the functional properties of the dried material will be compared to those of wet and/or freeze-dried material and benchmarked to other proteins. The suitability of this processing step will be determined in terms of product functional properties, product recovery throughout the process, and process scalability.

The project has a duration of 6 months (start date is flexible). The internship will be a regular internship and a report is expected at the end.

Responsibilities

• Literature study on processing conditions and scalability aspects of various promising industrial drying technologies (of microbial biomass)

• Experimental testing of drying conditions of Farmless’ biomass

• Analysing the functional properties of the dried biomass for food application

• Calculate the mass balance, energy efficiency and product recovery yield

• Finding the optimal process conditions in respect to functional properties, recovery yield and process scalability

Requirements

• Background in food technology and/or bioprocess technology

• Experience with (spray) drying technology is a plus

• Experience with bacterial biomass/fermentation is a plus

• Experience with sustainability analysis is a plus

• Fluent in English (speaking and writing)

What you can expect from Farmless

• €1200 gross internship compensation

• Pushing forward the frontiers of food production

• Free healthy vegan lunches, snacks, and drinks

• Work in a diverse, international and energetic team

Interested?

Apply now and let's shape the future of food together.