Spray Drying: Its Uses, Process And Important Factors To Be Aware Of!!

Spray drying can be defined as the transformation of feed from a fluid state into a dried state by spraying the feed or the substance into a hot medium. The feed used in the process can be a solution, paste or suspension which can easily be transformed into agglomerates, powders, and granules. The form that the final or finished product takes is dependent on various factors including the chemical and physical properties of the substance as well as the operation and design of the spray dryer.

The basic idea of the overall spray drying process is the production of highly dispersed dried powders from a fluid or liquid feed by evaporating the solvent. The finished product is achieved by mixing a heated gas with a sprayed fluid of high mass to surface ratio droplets, within a drying chamber or vessel. This causes the liquid solvent to evaporate quickly and uniformly through direct contact.

Uses of the spray drying process

The process of spray drying can be used in a wide variety of applications where the production of a free-flowing dried form of powder is required. But, this method of drying has become the most preferred in the following areas:

-    Tooth and bone amalgams

-    Pharmaceuticals

-    Egg and milk products

-    Textiles

-    Beverages

-    Resins, plastics, and polymers

-    Detergents and soaps

-    Plant extracts, flavors and colorings and many more.

Spray drying is a very flexible process that can easily meet the necessary product requirements of the above-given area's products, offering an inexpensive solution to many drying problems. It can solve drying problems concerning thermally sensitive materials including food ingredients and flavors. The products which are spray dried retain their nutritional value of the ingredients, while providing with a material that can further be used directly in a final composition, and even can be readily mixed or reconstituted.

Phases or methods of the spray drying process

The process of spray drying consists of the following steps:

1.    Feed preparation

The feed used in the process can be a homogenous and free from impurities suspension, paste or solution.

2.    Atomization

Atomization is the most important and critical step in the entire process of spray drying. It is the method of transforming the feed into small liquid droplets. The degree of atomization controls the drying level of the feed as well as of the dryer size.

3.    Drying

This phase of the spray drying process ensures that moisture evaporates quickly from the surface of the feed. This is then followed by a failing rate period where the drying level is controlled by diffusion of the liquid to the surface of the particle.

4.    Removal of powder from moist gas

The separation of powder from the gas needs to be carried out in an economical medium as well as in a pollutant-free manner. The particles are generally removed with bag filters, scrubbers, precipitators or cyclones.

5.    Packaging and cooling

The last step in the spray drying process is the cooling and packaging of the final product.

All these steps are very important to undertake if you want to get perfect spray drying results. However, to ensure that you get powder particles that are free from any impurities, you need to have proper information on drying kinetics as well as a good collection of solid ingredients. Keeping all these will surely provide you with the desired results.

Spray Drying: What Are The Benefits Of Spraying And How Does It Work?

A spray dryer is something that converts a liquid into a solid powder. It is used in several areas such as food processing, pharmaceutical industry, etc. The some spray dried products include instant coffee, milk powder, paint powder, egg powders, resins and detergents.

To say in simple words, spray drying system is what undertakes the complete process – right from receiving liquid feed at an end and packing into a container at the other end from where it is ready to transport.

However, sometimes, mainly in larger plants, a few other processes are added as to make the processing cost as much affordable as possible. Take for example milk processing plant where evaporation technologies are used to raise the feed solids as much as possible.

What are the advantages of spray drying?

Most industries where drying is required, use the spray drying method for its several incredible benefits. In addition to the benefits for mil processing plants, spray drying also has many benefits for pharmaceutical industry, such as:

·         Spray-drying is a scalable process for the production of dry pharmaceutical powders.

·         New devices enable pure drug nanonization and production of submicron drug carriers.

·         Controlling particle properties during process allows specific therapy applications.

·         Spray-drying is an effective means to overcome biopharmaceutical drawbacks of drugs.

·         This technology has become a key player for the production of inhalable drugs.

How does spray drying work?

There are different types of spray drying systems, and spray dryers come in various shapes and sizes but the way they work remains the same.

Spray drying is an evaporation process –widely used method to producing powder from liquids.

Basically, spray drying system has three main parts: a large chamber through which extremely hot air (or a different gas) is passed, a feed pump to supply raw liquid, and an atomizer that helps the formation of droplets.

In addition, there is a drum of cyclone which is used to collect the resulting products.

The solution is fed into spray dryer using a nozzle called atomizing device – which breaks down the feed solution into individual spheres. The work of nozzle is to make the droplets as small as possible and maximize the heat transfer and vaporization rate. The size of droplets varies, depending on the size of nozzles used.

Drying chambers is like a storage silos. The volume of the chamber depends on the heath exposure time required for the feed materials being dried. A burner heats the gas (often air) to force it into the main chamber where feed solution is atomized to develop into small droplets.

On contact with the hot gas the visible powder particles are case hardened, but the core is still in molten state.  The particles then are made to get into contact with hot air that strips remaining moisture from the rest of particles. And thus come out solid particles which are easily made into powder.

Spray Drying Process: Its Method, Uses, And Scope!!

Spray drying is basically a dehydration method that pharmaceuticals and food industries use for drying some of the liquid products into a completely dry state. Unlike other drying methods that form particles which further require grinding and sizing, a spray drying method easily makes free-flowing particles with narrow size distributions. It is mainly used in the manufacturing of products that are very sensitive to changes in temperature including some of the food materials and various pharmaceutical items.

The process of spray drying

The process of spray drying starts with the process of atomization where a nozzle transforms the liquid into droplets. This process also includes a quick drying of liquid materials by the usage of hot gases. These dryer’s nozzle work to distribute the liquid into regulated and even amounts. They further turn liquid substance into dry powders and the swiftness of the entire method offers various advantages to companies as compared to techniques including freeze and other types of drying.

Benefits of spray drying

1.    Spray drying process has adaptability and speed:

Spray drying method’s ability to complete the drying process within seconds is a major advantage over other industrial drying techniques which are slow and are also expensive. In the food industry specifically, fast drying plays an important role in ensuring a minimum loss. The process of spray drying, on the other hand, is adaptable to a huge range of industries and their product feedstock.

2.    The process has quality control:

Spray drying process creates powders of even particle size and overall quality. Being able to control the parameters makes the spray drying process more desirable and reliable for industries like pharmaceuticals, where the absorption of drugs mainly depends on its particle size.

3.    The method is cost-effective:

The entire spray drying method is reasonable and inexpensive. Unlike other drying methods, spray drying is much easier and is relatively cost-effective. One of the reasons why this method is being utilized so rapidly is because of its inexpensive and cost-effective nature.

So, these are some of the benefits that industries gain by utilizing spray drying methods for their products. However, to ensure that the method takes place smoothly and without any issue, it is important to use high-quality spray dryers. Top quality spray dryers are more likely to give excellent and fast results as compared to dryers which are not that good in quality. Therefore, it is crucial to use only good machines for drying the products in order to get excellent and accurate results.

The scope of spray drying

The spray drying method has been used for generating powdered items from fluid feed streams primarily with the use of motor-driven machines from a long time and since then; this process has become very famous particularly in food and pharmaceutical industries. Besides, with the above-given advantages, you can make out the importance of spray drying and its uses in several major industries.

How To Choose The Nozzle For Industry Use

From the high flow nozzles used for aerospace to the low pressures nozzles that are widely used in pharmaceutical industry, there are many different types of nozzles available in the market. Also, nozzles can be custom built according to some specific requirements. The type of nozzle is very crucial to the result you desire to yield. So it becomes inevitable to choose the right. Here is in this blog I will try to shed light on various aspects of the nozzles including spray pattern – a kind of nozzle testing in which the pattern of nozzle and other vitally important things are examined.

Before I talk about other vital considerations that you should make when it comes to choosing a nozzle for industrial use, let me take a look at the spray pattern – the method used for nozzle pattern testing.

What it is spray patternation testing?

Patternation testing is a method used for examining the pattern of a spray nozzle. The SETScan optical patternator is used for nozzle testing. A nozzle of any size can be tested. And there is a certain technique used to test the nozzle of a fixed size. Take for example, OP – 600 Model that is used to test a spray with diameter of 7 inches.

Spray pattern is also used for spraying frequency, nozzle pressure, spraying fluid. Check below the kinds of details this testing method provides you:

·         Cone angle

·         Presence of streaks and voids from color-coded contour maps of the spray cross-section

·         Local surface area of drops per unit volume

·         Asymmetry ratio

·         Patternator number

So when you want to get a nozzle used in a spray for painting, then you should make sure the nozzle you want to buy pattern tested. And it has been found ok for the kind of work you want to do with that.

There are various kinds of industrial nozzles. And each is built to do a certain work. You should choose a nozzle keeping in mind what you want to do. For example, if you need a nozzle for the machines used for pressure cleaning, you need high pressure nozzles that can allow you to throw water with high pressure.

High pressure nozzles are widely used for automated cleaning systems that have made cleaning a piece of cake. The most common nozzles are simple pressure nozzles, air assisted nozzles, impact nozzles, etc. So when you need to buy a spray nozzle, make sure the nozzle is spray pattern tested, and has the pressure you required. And the most importantly, it fits your budget.

Are You Searching for the Spray Dryer? Get to Know Everything about Spray Drying

A spray dryer  can  be  a  piece of industrial tools for quickly taking away dampness from a  liquid to supply a reliable in powder type. The first liquid can either be an answer  ( a dissolved strong)  or  an insoluble reliable in suspension within the  liquid - often named a  slurry. Frequent spray dried  items consist of instant coffee, dairy powder, paint powder, egg powders, resins, and   detergents. It is used in common in foods processing as well as the pharmaceutical industry.

In their fundamental form, spray dryer undertakes the whole approach from accepting liquid feed at one finish and packing into sacks or other containers with the other finish prepared for transportation. Typically on more substantial plants, different processes are added both up and downstream to moderate the processing fees around achievable.

A typical case in point will be for goods this kind of as milk, wherever it's frequently economically prudent to place evaporation systems into the feed technique to elevate the feed solids up to feasible. Spray drying programs can be found in many different sizes and shapes can look remarkably different but they all work in basically the same way.

Spray drying can be an evaporation procedure as well as the most common strategy for producing powder especially for warmth vulnerable supplies. Fundamentally a spray dryer consists of a huge chamber through which extraordinarily very hot air (or a various gas) is passed by way of, a feed pump and an atomizer.

The resulting powder reliable is more often than not collected in a drum of the cyclone. A nozzle is more often than not used to generate the droplets as small as possible, maximizing heat transfer and also the fee of drinking water vaporization.

Droplet measurements can range from 20 to 180 micrometers depending on the nozzle. Drying Chambers are of equivalent development to storage silos, huge open up vessels, their volumes becoming decided by the essential warmth exposure time for that feed component getting dried.

The gasoline (usually air) is typically heated by a burner as it is forced into the main chamber. The feed answer is atomized into the chamber to form droplets; on connection with the sizzling air the liquid evaporates leaving a powder. On original connection with the very hot fuel the visible powder particles are scenario hardened, a difficult outer surface area with a molten internal.

Because the particle falls down the size with the chamber connection with the hot air attracts the liquid from the relaxation with the particle. It's usually appealing to retain a little humidity in the powder particle in the finish with the method - recognized in the trade as Residual Moisture. The number of time it takes for the particle to fall the size of the chamber is termed residence time.

Compared to other sorts of drying, a spray dryer can dry a solution exceedingly quickly. Additionally they turn an answer or slurry right into a dried powder within a solitary phase, which can be useful for profit maximization and approach simplification.

What Are The Characteristics Of Spray Characterization?

Spray characterization is used for developing optical diagnostic equipment for the factory floor applications. The equipments prepared are suitable for the measurement of temperatures, gas concentrations, emissivity, and particulate characteristics for both single-phase and double-phase reaction flows. The spray pattern technology is providing reliable and high speed solutions to earn a quick return on investment. The products are measuring spray patterns, angles, drying, and densities to provide high quality results.

The parameters used to characterize a spray are –

Droplet Velocity

Volume Flux

Volume Distribution

Droplet Size

Spray Angles

Droplet Shape

Spray Impact

Rheology Testing

Flow Rate

Operating Pressure

Droplet Impact Force

The parameters are crucial in order to optimize a spray solution. The effectiveness of the nozzle and material can improve the understanding of the characteristics of a spray. Each parameter is critical to the identification of characteristics and they can benefit from an increase, decrease, or optimally tuned setting. The spray characterization service offers access to modern spray characterization instruments, with a range of advantages. The increased number density of droplets is reduced significantly with the use of optical line patternation.

What is the use of spray characterization?

The sprays are used in advanced energy conversion systems and it is characterized by complex physical and chemical processes such as turbulence, droplet formation, droplet collision, droplet evaporation, combustion, and soot generation. The complete characterization can be extremely challenging but necessary for the development of high fuel efficiency and low emission systems.

Typically, a variety of measurement techniques are employed to measure parameters such as spray angle, sheet thickness, droplet size, droplet velocity, and droplet temperatures among others. The spray characterization technique offers a variety of off-the-shelf and customized instruments that operate on the principles of Phase Doppler Interferometry (PDI). It helps the simultaneous measurement of the size and velocity of individual spherical droplets and particles in reactive and non-reactive sprays.

The spraying system company offers access to nearly all modern spray characterization instruments, and the staff is available to determine the necessary optimization of a spray application. The optical patternation technique is enabling the clients to earn a quick ROI. The series of combustion focused products provides analysis of the products, measurement of emissions, and analysis of radiation in visible wavelength. Make sure you contact the specialists in the business of optical diagnostics and research for the best results.

Save Your Energy and Time by Using Sprinkler Layout Design With Spray Patterns

So have you finally have given up on hand watering and want an in-ground system? Designing a sprinkler system may be easier than you think.

In this article, you will learn how to develop a simple garden plan and then estimate how much conduit and sprinkler heads you will be required for your project.

Plotting your garden area

First, find some graph paper. If you don't have any you can Google "printable graph paper" and print the example images. Depending on the size of your yard, establish the scale by referring to each square as 2 or more feet.

Next, you will want to measure and draw your house and patio areas. Be sure to include sidewalks and other obstructions like trees and garden borders as well.

Locating your water source

Once you have defined these areas and your garden boundary you will need to locate your water source. For this DIY project, we will be using your outside spigot as the water source. Locate these on your plan with an "X".

Choosing a sprinkler head

Now we will need to decide on what kind of sprinkler head to use. In this tutorial, we have selected Rotors for our project. These are a rotating gear driven heads and are a great choice for large lawn areas.

Creating spray templates

Next, we will create a spray pattern template. Draw 4 circles with a diameter (width of the circle) measuring 40 feet on a separate piece of graph paper. Then cut each circle out with a pair of scissors.

(Note: see our pre-drawn sprinkler templates to skip this step)

Then we need to cut one of the sprays in half and another in quarters for smaller areas. Since our Rotors allow adjustable spray angles we can keep certain areas dry by simply spraying outward.

Tracing your spray patterns

Begin with zones like the edge of house, yards or edge of the road and utilize the half circles. With the shower layouts just follow them utilizing a pencil.

Each shower example should cover no less than 30% to guarantee no territories in your yard or garden will wind up plainly dry. When every single half circle are drawn, fill in centre zones with full splashes and quarter spays where required.

Defining your watering zones

Finally, we need to draw in the conduit and create watering zones. Starting at your spigot, draw a gradual curve from one head to the next, making sure your conduit never overlaps. Be sure to avoid tight turns in your design.

For this tutorial, we will use 3 heads for each zone. By connecting a series of 3 heads together you are establishing one watering zone. Repeat this process to the remaining heads on your plan.

Checking your Psi and Gpm

You will also want to check your Psi and GPM levels. A call to your water company will give you a good idea of how good your water coverage will be.

We hope this tutorial has given you a better understanding of DIY Sprinkler Irrigation Design and Planning. You may have discovered that planning for a sprinkler system is much easier than you had originally thought.