Spray drying is cutting edge method to produce dry powder
from a liquid with the help of a hot gas. This is a natural way of drying
thermally sensitive things like food and pharmaceuticals. Spray drying is much
simpler and faster because it performs the conversion of liquid in a single
step. During the process, the liquid is granule into fine droplets which is
then blown up by the hot gas. The resultant powder is collected with a cyclone.
In case of liquid that is flammable then nitrogen is used to
cope up with such problems. Every spray dryer comes with the atomizer to
disperse the liquid in fixed size droplets. Normally single source spray dryer
is used. This single source is held at the top where dry gas is blown
concurrently to liquid. In many cases, the powder gets contaminant with dust.
To overcome this sort of problem drying of liquid is done two ways. In first
step single effect is done while 2nd has a static bed at the bottom of the
chamber. The benefit of using this bed is to provide humid surrounding so that
powders can assemble. It significantly helps in getting uniform particle size.
The liquid is sprayed through a nozzle where it is vaporized.
The best advantage of this method is, it takes solute or suspension and
converts it into solid and solvent into vapor. Although it is faster and less
expensive, it has its own toppling side due to higher temperature operation. On
the other hand, spray drying focus on large processing rather than smaller
ones. Research suggests that spray
drying can be used in microencapsulated bacteria and nano-particles.
Due to less expensive and bulk processing, spray drying is the favorite technique
for certain markets. In case of robustness spray drying somewhere flickers due
to operation at high temperature and shear stress. Most pharmaceuticals are
affected by this since they contain proteins which get destabilizes during
high-temperature exposure.
Spray drying can be used in various foods like coffee, milk
powder, tea, flavorings, starch derivatives, etc. In pharmaceuticals industry,
it is applied to medical additives, antibiotics, etc. It also has application
in the paint and ceramic industry.
With certain benefits over freezing sprays which operates
under 0°C, spray drying has been widely considered as an efficient technique in
pharmaceuticals and food industry. But quality at some point is compromised in
this because high temperature and shear stress degrades the quality of the food
or pharmaceuticals.
If you looking to buy spray drying for your business you can
own it without any hustle. There are multiple vendors available in the market
selling spray drying with the sophisticated and robust design. Internet is
another option to reach out the right vendor.