The effect of fatty acid structure of polyethyleneimine (PEI)-fatty acid complex, which was designed as a polymer dispersant for multi-component non-aqueous slurries, on the overall processing chain of Si3N4 ceramics involving slurry stabilization, spray drying, compaction, and liquid sintering was investigated using PEI-oleic acid (PEI-OA) and PEI-isostearic (PEI-ISA) complexes. Si3N4-Y2O3-Al2O3-AlN-TiO2/toluene slurries were selected as a real model for Si3N4-based multicomponent slurries. It was observed that both PEI-OA and PEI-ISA can stabilize Si3N4-Y2O3-Al2O3-AlN-TiO2/toluene slurries; however, the PEI-ISA system tended to have slightly higher slurry viscosity, which was suspected to be due to the interactions between protruded PEI segments among short ISA chains. The spray-dried granules from PEI-ISA-stabilized slurry were observed to have filled structures with higher surface roughness whereas those prepared from PEI-OA-stabilized slurry were observed to have hollow-structured granules. The granules prepared from PEI-OA slurry had improved flow and compaction properties with higher relative density of green compacts compared with those prepared from PEI-ISA-stabilized slurry, whereas the relative density and microstructural homogeneity of S3N4 ceramics sintered at 1600 degrees C for 2 h were observed to be higher for the PEI-ISA system. It is suspected that PEI-OA effectively improved the dispersion stability of multicomponent slurries and flow/compaction properties of granules; however, the inhomogeneous microstructures of green compacts induced by the hollow-structured granules had an adverse effect on the sintering of Si3N4 ceramics. (C) 2018 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.