ABSTRACT
In a bid to develop local substitute for imported adhesives, seeing that the local consumption is high, an attempt was made to study the process of dextrin manufacture from starch and to design a converter vessel (Dextrinator) for the process. An experimental study was carried out to examine the effect of the various process variables on the product auality. White dextrin was prepared from cassava starch by adding 2M HC1 as catalyst to 200g of the starch at a conversion temperature of 120c. For a conversion period of 5 hours, the product had cold water solubility of 90%, high fluidity and is useful as a paper adhesive. A model for the dextrinization process was developed. From the model, the temperature of the starch material in the dextrinator is related to the temperature of the heating fluid (oil) by the equation; The oil temperature varies with time according to the equation