Amorphous and humidity caking: A review

Caking of products is a common and undesired phenomenon in food, chemical, pharmaceutical, and fertilizer industries which leads to extra cost and irregular quality. In general, caking processes could be identified as amorphous caking or humidity caking. In this review, history of studying caking, formation, methods, and prospects of these two caking processes are summarized and discussed. The relevant studies from the 1920s to today are mentioned briefly. According to the different properties (i.e. hygrocapacity, hygrosensitivity, mechanical properties, and diffusion behavior) of amorphous powders and crystals, the conditions and mechanisms of amorphous and humidity caking are discussed. It is summarized that glass transition, moisture sorption, quantitative methods characterizing caking, accelerated caking tests, and simulation of caking behaviors are the main aspects that should be studied for a caking process. The methods for these five aspects are reviewed. Potential research points are proposed including caking of mixed particles, caking with phase transition or polymorph transition, non-homogenous caking, and simulation of caking. (C) 2019 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.