Spray Drying Process and Its Advantages

Spray drying is one of the most preferred dehydration methods used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Spray dryer is used in the manufacturing process of products like powdered milk, instant coffee, detergent, cake mix, ceramic powder and yeast extract. Spray dryer is mostly used in drying the products that are temperature sensitive. As a result, the food and pharmaceutical industries are the focus area for any spray dryer manufacturer and supplier.

In the spray drying process, liquid materials are quickly dried by the use of hot gases. Generally, spray dryers have a nozzle to distribute the regulated amounts of the liquids. The smooth process of turning the liquid solutions into dry powders offers numerous benefits to the companies as compared to the process of freeze drying which is more expensive. With the continuous efforts of spray dryer manufacturers, spray drying technology has evolved and it offers unique advanced features as compared to the previous technologies.

In recent times, contract spray drying has gained popularity in the food industry. As a result, many industrial spray dryer manufacturers in India offer contract spray drying for different types of products. In contract spray drying the food manufacturing companies not only benefits from the experience of the spray drying manufacturer, but also get the benefit of GMP spray drying facilities.

The Stages of Spray Drying Process

The first step of the spray drying process is atomization. This is a step when the rotary atomizer or nozzle turns the liquid into small liquid droplets. It is a very important stage as many of the desired qualities of the product like particle size and velocity are developed in this stage.

The next step is the drying process. Once the droplets exit the nozzle, they need to be dried to form a powder so that they can be packed and transported easily. Drying of the powder is mostly done with the air that is heated with natural gases. By fine-tuning the temperature of hot air, the final moisture of the product is controlled.

The last step of the spray drying is the recovery process. In this step, the powder is recovered from the exhaust gas with bag filter or cyclone.

The Advantages of Spray Drying

Speed and Versatility

The speed drying technique completes the drying process in one step which gives it an edge over other drying processes. Fast-drying is very important in the food industry as it ensures the minimum flavour loss. As a result, it is the most preferred drying process for any spray dried powder manufacturer today. The speed drying technique is very versatile and it is used in various industries for a wide range of products. In addition, protection of spray dry flavors is one of the biggest advantages of this process which has increased its usage for flavor spray drying.

Quality Control

Spray drying process helps in producing powders of desired particle size and quality. Some other parameters that can be controlled during the spray drying process are bulk density and residual solvent levels. As a result, this process is best suitable for industries like food and pharmaceutical where high precision is needed in terms of quality.