Summary Flavours can be among the most valuable ingredients in any food formula. Even small amounts of some aroma substance can be expensive, and because they are usually delicate and volatile, preserving them is often a top concern of food manufacturers. Encapsulation describes different processes to cover an active compound with a protective wall material and it can be employed to treat flavours so as to impart some degree of protection against evaporation, reaction, or migration in a food. Encapsulation of flavours has been attempted and commercialized using many different methods such as spray drying, spray chilling or spray cooling, extrusion, freeze drying, coacervation and molecular inclusion. The choice of appropriate microencapsulation technique depends upon the end use of the product and the processing conditions involved in the manufacturing product. This overview describes each method cited above in terms of the basic chemical and/or physical principles involved and covers mechanisms of flavour release from food matrices.

Flavour encapsulation and controlled release - a review.

CuO nanostructures: Synthesis, characterization, growth mechanisms, fundamental properties, and applications

Thermal comfort and building energy consumption implications - A review

Microgrids and Active Distribution Networks offer a potential solution for sustainable, energy-efficient power supply to cater for increasing load growth, supplying power to remote areas, generation of clean power and reduction in emission of greenhouse gases & particulates as per Kyoto protocol.

Microgrids and Active Distribution Networks

Advances in heat pump systems: A review

Research on modular micro combustor-radiator with and without porous media

Experimental investigation of kapok (Ceiba pentandra) oil biodiesel as an alternate fuel for diesel engine

Numerical simulation of a novel energy-efficient dew-point evaporative air cooler

The ability of heat pump dryer to produce controlled transient drying conditions, in terms of temperature, humidity and air velocity, has given it an edge over other drying systems. Exploiting this characteristic, we studied and compared the effect of different temperature-time profiles on the quality of agricultural products in a tunnel heat pump dryer capable of providing up to 14.6 kW of cooling capacity. The product quality refers to the color change of the products. Samples of banana and guava were dried in batches in a two-stage heat pump dryer. The effects of the starting temperature of a selected profile and the cycle time on both drying kinetics and product quality were studied. It was observed that by employing a step change in drying air temperature with the appropriate starting temperature and cycle time, it was possible to reduce significantly the drying time to reach the desired moisture content with improved product color.

Kian Jon Chua

Papers

Research on modular micro combustor-radiator with and without porous media

Experimental investigation of kapok (Ceiba pentandra) oil biodiesel as an alternate fuel for diesel engine

Numerical simulation of a novel energy-efficient dew-point evaporative air cooler

On the study of time-varying temperature drying—effect on drying kinetics and product quality

Performance study of a microturbine system for cogeneration application