Researchers from the Kobe Women's University, Japan, found that the addition of propylene glycol ester of alginic acid (PGA) or sodium alginate to wheat flour improved bread making properties such as bread height (mm) and specific volume (cm³/g). The results were published on Food Science and Technology Research. 22, (1): 145-151, 2016. 

When PGA or sodium alginate/wheat flour and control bread dough were baked at 210°C for 10 min, the temperature of the dough (70° - 80°C) inactivates the yeast and thus gas production is stopped. However, the oven spring of PGA or sodium alginate/wheat flour bread dough continued for 30 min. The shrinkage of PGA or sodium alginate/wheat flour bread dough at 5 min of baking gradually decreased to zero at 30 min of baking; however, the shrinkage of the control decreased to almost zero at 15 min of baking. The larger addition of water in PGA or sodium alginate/wheat flour dough than in the control dough resulted in a longer time of gelatinization and protein denaturation than in the control dough during oven baking.