INFLUENCE OF SOLUBLE POLYSACCHARIDE ON THE ADHERENCE OF PARTICULATE SOILS

The removal of particulate soils from solid surfaces is the key process of cleaning many industrial devices, such as heat exchangers and spray dryers (food and pharmaceutical sector), and may be influenced by the presence of solutes, in particular of macromolecules. The present study deals with the influence of soluble polysaccharide on the adherence of particulate fouling of open surfaces and on subsequent cleaning. Model substrates differing by hydrophobicity (glass and polystyrene) were soiled with a suspension of quartz particles, taken as a model of hard hydrophilic soil. Dextran was chosen as a model of soluble polysaccharide. The substrates were soiled with or without previous conditioning with the polysaccharide solution (80mg/l). The quartz particles suspension was prepared in three ways: (i) suspension in a polysaccharide solution (80mg/l), (ii) same as (i) and subsequent washing three times, (iii) suspension in water. The substrates were soiled by spraying the suspension and dried for 30min before cleaning treatment with a water flow in a radial flow chamber. The aggregates observed after soiling differed considerably between glass and polystyrene, whether the substrate and/or the quartz particles were or were not conditioned with dextran. Conditioning polystyrene with dextran increased slightly the adherence of quartz particles, while the opposite was observed when conditioning glass with dextran, whatever the mode of quartz particles conditioning. The effect of conditioning quartz particles with dextran at the concentration used was not significant.