A Fuzzy Expert System for the Selection of Spray-Drying Equipment

Abstract A modular fuzzy expert system (KSpray) has been formulated to aid in the selection of spray-drying equipment for food products. KSpray can be used either as a stand-alone program or as an integral part of DrySES, the web-based selection algorithm developed at Kuwait University to screen relatively large numbers of dryer types. In its current embodiment, KSpray incorporates selection rules for six commonly used spray-dryer configurations based on the physical and chemical properties of the product. Five case studies are presented to illustrate its use. There was good agreement between the KSpray predictions and the selections made by a human expert.