Spray Drying

Introduction
 Extensively used in the food industry for drying liquid foods
with high initial moisture content.

 Unique features include rapid drying cycle, a short holding

time and a ready final product for packaging.

Principle
 The liquid or slurry is finely atomized and introduced into
the drying chamber, where it is brought into contact
with gaseous heating medium such as air.

 Air transfers the heat to the individual spray particles,

evaporating the moisture and leaving the solids as a
powder floating in the air stream.
 The fine droplets of 10-200 microns present a very large
surface area per unit volume.

 A cubic meter of liquid forms 2 x 1012 uniform 100 µm

droplets (area= 60000 m2).

 Very rapid drying (1-30 s) occurs because of the vast surface

area.

 The product particles may never reach a temperature higher

than the wet-bulb temperature of the air.

 Hence, minimum damage occurs to the product even though

higher air temperatures are used for drying.

 Most of the drying occurs under constant rate drying

conditions.
 Advantages of spray drying

 Continuous operation

 Full automatic control possible

 Suitable for heat sensitive materials

 High thermal efficiencies are achieved, especially at high

inlet air temperatures

 All pumpable feed stock, in the form of solution, slurry,

thixotropic paste or melt form, can be handled.
 Components/ Process Stages of a Spray Dryer
 Air heating and circulation system
 Spray-forming device
 Drying chamber
 Product recovery system

Air heating and circulation system:

 No direct use of flue gases.

 Steam heaters are most common.

 Electric heaters are seldom used except in pilot plants.

 Centrifugal fans or blowers are used for moving the air through the
system.
 Drying chambers usually operate at a slight vacuum or negative pressure.

 Filters are used to clean the inlet air.

 Dampers are provided in the air inlet and outlet ducts to control the air
flow.
 Spray forming devices

 Three main types of atomizing devices are:

a. pressure nozzles
b. centrifugal atomizers
c. two-fluid nozzles

Pressure nozzle (based on pressure energy):

 The feed material is pumped at relatively high pressure, usually in the
range of 3000-50000 kg/m2 through a small orifice.

 The pressure energy in the high-pressure liquid is converted into kinetic

energy, which is used to form the spray.

 The feed is made to rotate within the nozzle using an insert placed before
the orifice so that and a cone of spray is formed.

 The feed rate and spray characteristics are controlled by varying pressure.

 Coarse spray is formed with a mean particle size of 150-250 µm.

 Blockage and widening of orifice by particulate matter are the limitations.

Centrifugal atomizers (based on centrifugal energy):
 They consist of spray wheels, discs, cups etc.

 The liquid feed introduced near the center of rotation of the atomizer is
accelerated to the linear velocity at the periphery and spun off in the
form of a spray.
 The peripheral velocity can reach 300 m/s.
 The feed, on leaving the periphery, disintegrates readily into a spray of
droplets with fine to medium-coarse size range.
 A wide variety of spray characteristics can be obtained for a given product
through combinations of feed rate, atomizer speed and design.
 The mean particle size of the spray is about 30-120 µm, and is very
homogenous.
 These nozzles are not subjected to blockage or abrasion due to solids in
the feed and can handle high feed rates and viscous materials.
Two-fluid nozzle (based on kinetic energy):
 The feed and the atomizing gas are passed separately to the nozzle
head.
 The two-fluid nozzle depends on the energy in the high velocity stream
of gas to atomize the feed.
 Sonic velocities are often generated. Particle size of the spray ranges from
fine to coarse.
 The air stream is rotated within the nozzle, and feed is contacted either
within the nozzle or at the point of emergence of liquid from the
nozzle.
 Adjustment of the air flow governs the degree of atomization. Approx.
0.5 m3 of air is required for atomizing 1 kg of feed.
 The feed pressures are however less than those necessary for pressure
nozzles.
 Also, suffer from orifice widening and blockage. Expensive. Used in small-
 (a) (b)
Figure. Spray-dried powder: (a) produced by wheel atomizer; (b) produced
by pressure nozzle under comparable operating conditions
 Advantages and disadvantages of wheel atomizers

Advantages
 Can handle high feed rates in a single wheel
 Suitable even for abrasive materials
 Negligible blockage or clogging tendencies
 Simple droplet size control by changing wheel speed

Disadvantages
 Higher energy consumption than pressure nozzles
 Higher capital cost than pressure nozzles
 Broad spray requires large chamber
 Advantages and disadvantages of pressure nozzles

Advantages
 Simple and compact construction, no moving parts
 Low cost
 Low energy consumption
 Desired spray characteristics can be produced by alternation
of the whirl chamber design

Disadvantages
 Control and regulation of spray pattern and nozzle capacity
during operation not possible
 Swirl nozzles not suitable for suspensions because of phase
separation
 Tendency to clog
 Strong corrosion and erosion effects cause enlargement of
the orifice, which changes the spray characteristics.
 Selection of atomizer

 Selection depends on the nature of the feed and desired

characteristics of the dried product.
 Increasing the amounts of energy available for atomization
will result in fine droplet sizes.

 If the atomization energy is kept constant and the feed rate

is increased, sprays with larger droplet sizes will
emerge.

 The degree of atomization also depends on the fluid

properties such as viscosity and surface tension.
 Figure. Centrifugal / wheel atomizer for a spray dryer (Source: Handbook of Industrial
(Source: Handbook of Food Engineering, Second Edition) Drying, Third Edition)

Figure. Two-fluid nozzle Figure. Pressure nozzle

(Source: Handbook of Food Engineering, Second Edition)
(Source: Handbook of Food Engineering, Second Edition)
 Spray dryer designs (chamber types)
Countercurrent type
 Here, the liquid is atomized near the top of the drying
chamber, and falls downward, while the air is introduced
near the bottom of the drying chamber in a countercurrent
fashion.

 The dried product leaves the bottom of the chamber while the
air is removed near the top of the drying chamber.

 As the inlet air is brought into direct contact with the product
which is dried, the product quality is not high due to the
influence of heat.

 In addition, the air flow rate must be relatively low in order to

avoid entrainment of large quantities of product.
Co-current type
 Here, the product and air pass through the dryer in co-
current flow. That is, both move in the same direction.

 This design is widely used if heat sensitive products are

dried. The product temperature is low when bulk of the
evaporation and drying takes place.

 The evaporation is rapid and the drying air gets cooled.

Therefore, the product is not subjected to heat
degradation.

 Both rotary and nozzle-type atomizers can be used in co-

current flow system.
Mixed flow type
 Mixed-flow contact is employed when a coarse product is
required and the size of the drying chamber is limited.

 It is the economical system for a material that can withstand

exposure to high temperature in dry form.
Figure. Different designs of spray dryer Figure. Height (h) of the drying chamber vs.
diameter (d). T is the temperature difference
between the air and the particle.
 Selection of chamber design
Chamber design and method of air introduction are selected
according to:
a. Required particle size
b. Required dried particle form
c. The temperature to which the dried particles could be subjected.

 If a fine-particled product (30-120 µm) is required, but a low

product temperature shall be maintained at all times, a co-
current rotary atomizer spray dryer design is selected.

 If a coarse-particled product (120-250 µm) is required, but a low

product temperature shall be maintained, then a co-current
tower design with pressure nozzle atomizer is selected.

 If a coarse-particled product (120-250 µm) is required, but a high

product temperature can be maintained, then a counter-
current tower design with pressure nozzle atomizer is
Figure. Effect of both inlet and outlet air temperature on thermal efficiency.
(Source: Handbook of Industrial Drying)
Powder Recovery System
 Introduction
 Separation of milk powder is carried out partly within the
drying chamber (most cases) and partly in the secondary
separation equipment.

 As major portion of the dry product falls to the bottom of the

chamber, it is removed with the aid of rakes, screw
conveyors and rotary valves.

 In some dryers, the entire product leaves the drying chamber

with the outgoing air.

 The common methods of powder separation are:

a. Dry cyclones
b. Wet cyclones
c. Wet scrubbers
d. Bag filters
e. Electrostatic separators
 In general, dry powders are separated by cyclones, bag
filters and electrostatic precipitators while wet powders
are separated by wet scrubbers, wet cyclones, etc.

 Powder separators should separate the dry product from

the drying air more efficiently.

 Dry separators are used for the principal dry product

separation and collection while the wet separators are
used for the final air cleaning and hence are situated
after dry collectors.
 Cyclone separator
 In a dry cyclone, centrifugal force is employed to move the
particle toward the wall and separate them from the air
core around the axis.

 Air and the particles enter the cyclone tangentially, swirl in a

spiral down the cyclone.

 Pressure drop occurs and air forms a vortex around the

centre of the chamber.

 The whirling air, being lighter, gets collected at the centre

and is delivered out through the top opening.

 The heavier particles, slide along the walls of the cyclone,

where they get collected and leave the cyclone at the
bottom.
 Thus, a particle is acted upon by two forces,
the centrifugal force and the weight of the
particle.

 In a spray drying process, a single cyclone

system or in pairs or in series are used.

 The choice between them depends upon the

following factors:
a. Size characteristics to determine the smallest Figure. Cyclone
particle size that can be separated in the unit separator
b. Overall cyclone efficiency
c. Pressure drop over the unit

Cyclones generally give recoveries in the order

of 90-97%.
Cyclone separator-design
 Two characteristics that are used to
define cyclone performance are:

a. The critical particle diameter (particle

size that is completely removed
from the air stream)
b. The cut size (the particle diameter for
which 50% collection efficiency is
achieved).
Figure. Efficiency curves of cyclone separator
 It is evident from this diagram that
particles above 15 mm are
removed with high efficiency in
the cyclone.

 The pressure drop across the cyclone

unit ranges between 700 and
2000 Pa.
 Venturi Scrubber
 The particles are separated from air by
contacting it with a liquid, usually water.

 The air carrying fine particles flows

through a venturi where water is
injected at the throat of the
scrubber to form a spray.

 The scrubbing liquid containing the

product is separated out and
discharged from the
scrubber base. Figure. Design of venturi wet scrubber.
(Source: Handbook of Industrial Drying)

 Offers easy cleaning and maintenance.

 The pressure drop over the scrubber is

usually between 2 and 5 kPa.
 Bag filters
 The airflow containing dry particles
passes through a woven fabric.

 Powder is collected on one side of the

fabric and the air leaves on the
other.

 Some modern units consist of several Figure. Bag filter – efficiency curve
bags installed in a bag-house.

 Very high efficiency is obtained even

with 1-mm particles.

 Bag filters must be carefully maintained

to avoid any leakage and regularly
cleaned to maintain high operating
efficiency.