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Experiment No: 05
Submitted to-
Noor Mohammad
Lecturer,
BUET.
Submitted by-
Mahmudul Hasan
1302002,
1302003,
1302004
i
Summary
The main objective of this experiment was to study spray dryers and spray drying operation.
Spray drying plays an important role in separating liquid from the solid for industrial purpose. A
slurry or liquid solution is dispersed into a stream of hot gas in the form of mist of fine droplets
in a spray dryer. In this experiment dry milk powder as solid was separated from its liquid
solution. Mixed flow spray dryer containing a two flow atomizer was used in the laboratory for
this purpose. There was a counter current flow of hot air and atomized particle in the spray
chamber as a result of which heat and mass transfer occurred. Moisture was rapidly vaporized
from the droplets leaving residual particles of dry solid. Dry milk powder was then separated by
using a Cyclone separator. At the start of the experiment, 1000 gm liquid milk was taken of
which 50 gm was milk powder and the rest was water. At the end of the process 27.4 g milk was
recovered which was compared with the previous amount. Thus, the percentage recovery of milk
powder was found to be 54.8% with a drying rate of 22.09 g/min. The reasons behind low
percentage recovery of dry milk are discussed here in the discussion section.
ii
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 01
2. Theory 02
3. Experimental Section 09
4. Observed data 13
5. Data Calculation 13
6. Result 14
7. Discussion 14
8. Conclusion 17
9. Reference 18
10. Nomenclature 19
11. Report 20
12. Appendix 26
iii
List of illustrations
iv
1. Introduction
Drying is the process of transfer of liquid by evaporation from any drying media like wet solid or
liquid substances. Spray drying is actually the transformation of feed from a fluid state into a
dried form by spraying the feed into a hot drying medium. It is a one step, continuous particle
processing operation involving drying. The feed can either be a solution, suspension or paste.
The resulting product conforms to powders, granules or agglomerates. Generally air is the heated
drying medium with little or no inert in this process. However, if the liquid is a flammable
solvent such as ethanol or the product is oxygen-sensitive then nitrogen is used. This is the
preferred method of drying of many heat sensitive materials such as foods and pharmaceuticals.
The spray drying process begins as solution is pumped to the atomizer. The atomizer increases
the surface area of the solution by creating mists or fine droplets. This converts the bulk liquid
into sprays of liquids. The mist is sprayed into a chamber of air heated to temperature above the
vaporization temperature of the solution’s solvent. As the mist contact the hot air, the solvent
(typically water) vaporizes. The flow of liquid and gas may be co-current, countercurrent or a
combination of both in the same unit (mixed current). The solvent vaporization rate
depends upon the solution flow rate, temperature of the solution, flow rate of air,
temperature of air, size of the mist droplets, and total solid concentration.
The vaporized solvent and the dried particles are then removed from the chamber. A cyclone
separates the entrained particles from the humid air. The dry particles are forced to the bottom of
the cyclone separator and the air is expelled to the atmosphere pressure goes to a scrubber. The
feed droplets while losing its moisture to hot air remain at temperatures much below the hot air
temperature for a very short time. Hence spray drying is essentially known as "Low
Temperature Drying". The dried product can be in the form of powders, granules, or
agglomerates depending upon the physical and chemical properties of the feed, the dryer design
and final powder properties desired. The spray-dried products have improved mean particle size
and particle size distribution, appearance, texture, flow property, compressibility, bulk density,
dispersibilty and solubility.
The main parts of a common spray dryer are- air blower, air heater, atomizer, drying chamber,
compressor & also a cyclone separator for separating the dried powder from humid air.
Producing droplets of specific size and surface area by atomization is the most critical step in the
spray drying process. Three classes of atomizers are normally used in spray dryers based on the
degree of atomization and particle size required.
This type of nozzle is used in low production rate drying, particularly if a fine particle
size is desired.
A spray is created by contacting two fluids, the feed and a compressed gas. The
atomization energy is provided by the compressed gas, usually air. The contact can be
internal or external to the nozzle.
The mechanism of atomization in these nozzles is by air shattering the liquid streams. At
low air pressure, the gas blows a bubble of liquid, which collapses into droplets. At
higher pressures, the liquid issues from the nozzle as ligaments.
This is the least energy efficient of the atomization techniques.
These types of nozzles are used in pilot and pharmaceutical dryers where the chamber
volume is small, thus requiring small droplets.
A spray is created by forcing the fluid through an orifice. The energy required to
overcome the pressure drop is supplied by the spray dryer feed pump.
The narrowest particle size distribution is possible with this technique. Must be used
when gaining fine particles is important.
Spraying pressure depends on feed characteristics and desired particle size and can range
from 300 to 3000 psig.
The most energy efficient of the atomization techniques.
This type of atomization requires a positive displacement, high pressure feed pump, such
as a plunger pump or a piston/diaphragm pump.
3. Centrifugal atomizer:
These atomizers may be used to spray fluids that cannot be made homogeneous enough
to pass through a nozzle.
A spray is created by passing the fluid across or through a rotating wheel or disk. The
energy required for atomization is supplied by the atomizer motor.
A broader particle size distribution is typically generated.
Moreover, they produce an extremely uniform droplet size and do not require a high
pressure feed or impart an axial velocity to the sprayed dryers.
Can generally be run for longer periods of time without routine maintenance.
Usually, the most resistant to wear and requires periodic changing of wheel inserts.
These four steps are illustrated below in the working principle section:
Atomization is the process of breaking up the bulk liquid into millions of individual droplets
forming a spray. The energy necessary for this process is supplied by centrifugal, pressure,
kinetics or sonic effect. Several types of atomization may be employed, including centrifugal,
nozzle, pneumatic which is discussed before. In the laboratory, at first the solution is fed to the
spray dryer into the atomizer. The stream then comes in contact with compressed air and creates
a mist. The mist is sprayed from the spray nozzle into the dryer chamber.
In the drying chamber the mist comes into contact with compressed air. Mixing of spray droplets
can be of three types. They are: concurrent flow, countercurrent flow and mixed flow. These
three types of flow are discussed in the appendix section. After mixing, the heated air vaporizes
the solvent, removed from the chamber.
A constant rate phase ensures moisture evaporates rapidly from the surface of the particle. This is
followed by a falling rate period where the drying is controlled by diffusion of water to the surface of
the particle. After leaving the atomizer the spray mixes with the hot gas in the drying chamber. In
drying solutions and emulsions the drying particle reaches temperature higher than that of wet bulb
temperature as drying produces. Initially the liquid evaporates from the droplet surface, the relatively
dry surface may form a tough shell through which liquid from the interior of the shell must diffuse in
order to escape. This diffusion is much slower process than the transfer of heat through the droplet
shell to the interior, so the liquid tends to evaporate in place. So the droplet swells, making the shell
thinner and diffusion faster.
A cyclone separates the entrained particles from the humid air. Without going directly to the
center of the cyclone separator, the dried particles fall at the bottom of the separator in a helical
path being adjacent to the cyclone body. The dry particles are forced to the bottom of the cyclone
separator and the air goes to a scrubber.
In the drying chamber both heat and mass transfer occur. The initial vaporization of the water in
the mist accounts for the majority of the heat transfer. The amount of heat necessary to increase
the solution temperature to the air inlet temperature needs to be a high enough temperature to
vaporize the solvent. Once vaporization occurs, the vaporized solvent is then mixed with the
drying air. This is mass transfer. If the drying air becomes saturated with solvent, no more liquid
in the mist can be vaporized. Saturation occurs when the drying reaches 100% absolute humidity.
At this position the solution will be as dry as possible.
If a dry solution needs to be obtained, three things can be done which are discussed below:
First, increasing the drying air inlet temperature will allow more solvent to be vaporized
into the air.
Second, holding the drying air steady and increasing the drying air flow rate will increase
the amount of air present and allow the more transfer of the vaporized solvent.
Third, lowering the flow rate of the solution into the drying chamber. This will limit the
amount of water that needs to be dried.
The whole spray Drying Process depends upon some factors and the process can be adjusted
by changing those factors.
1. Some milk powder was taken in a big beaker and weight of milk powder was found by
weighing in a digital machine. The amount of dry milk powder was 50.0 gm.
2. Amount of 950.0 gm of water was added and the powder was dissolved in it thoroughly and
strained through a fine cloth.
3. The spray dryer was started by turning the hot air blower on. The heater was adjusted and
noted.
4. The dryer was allowed to run for about 43 minutes.
5. The dryer was run with the prepared milk solution for a fixed atomizing air pressure. The
operating pressure for our experiment was 20 psig.
6. The dried milk was then separated by a cyclone separator and was collected in an empty jar.
This solid milk powder was weighed and percentage recovery was calculated.
5. Data Calculation
Weight of liquid milk, M = Weight of milk powder (Mm) + Weight of water (Mw)
= (50.0 + 950.0) g
= 1000.0 g
Weight of recovered milk, m = Weight of beaker with recovered milk – Weight of
empty beaker
= (589.0-561.6) g
= 27.4g
Weight of recovered milk
Percentage of powder milk recovered = ×100%
Weight of powder milk
27.4
= ×100%
50
= 54.8%
Weight of water
Drying rate = Total time required for drying
950
= 43
= 22.09 g/min
7. Discussion
In this experiment, the percentage recovery of the powdered milk was found to be 54.8% which
is low. And the drying rate was found to be 22.09 gm/min. This result indicates that there was
some loss within the system. The reasons behind discrepancies are given below –
The supplied milk powder already had some moisture content. This extra moisture
content was not excluded from the initially measured weight of the powdered milk. So,
actual weight of the dry milk was not found. This causes some loss in the weight of milk
powder.
Some milk might accumulate in the apparatus. And it was seen that a considerable
amount of milk powder was stuck on the separator wall. This might reduce the
percentage of milk powder recovery. Smooth surface of the apparatus might reduce this
loss.
Atomization of milk solution was not perfect enough so that little drops of milk
remained unchanged in the top of dryer chamber.
Quite a good amount of particles had been attached at the outlet of the cyclone separator
which couldn’t be recovered.
The pressure of the atomizing air and the working pressure of spray dryer could not be
maintained to be perfectly constant which might have caused some error. If the atomizing
air pressure was higher then the feed would have been broken into finer particles which
could be dried more efficiently
Some milk powder went out of the cyclone separator with exhaust air. Recycle of the
exhaust stream to drying chamber might lessen this loss.
It could be seen that the outlet temperature of air is lower than the inlet temperature, this was due
to the high moisture content of the milk powder. It required heat from hot air to drive the
moisture off and thus the temperature of air at the outlet decreased in a good amount.
This experiment was designed just to observe a simple spray drying process and to have an idea
about the process, apparatus related to the process and the operating factors of the process. In
industries the production scale is very large and some other factors are related to production. So
the operating factors like selection of dryer, atomizer, separator, flow conditions of the drying
gas etc may vary.
Spray dryer is rather expensive and being a convection dryer, it has a poor thermal efficiency.
Much heat was ordinarily lost in the discharge air. Although a very low percentage recovery of
the milk powder was found, in this experiment spray dryer was used instead of other dryers.
Spray drying is a process of suspending sprayed particles and removing the particles moisture by
hot air. Quality of spray-dried products is high due to the protection of the particles through
evaporative cooling during the process. Factors influencing the performance of spray dryers
include temperature, moisture content, inlet air flow rate, the amount of solid materials, viscosity
and surface tension of the processed material, type of atomizer and its related parameters such as
velocity and diameter of the atomizer. Actually, this experiment made possible to get acquainted
with spray drying technique, working principle of spray dryer, operating variables of spray
drying, types of material handle in spray dryer and advantage and disadvantage of spray dryer
etc. Knowledge about different parts of a spray dryer and their functions could also be gained
through the experiment. By comparing the working principle of lab type spray dryer, a guess can
also be made about the large installation of Spray dryer in Industries.
Books
3. Masters, K. (1985). Spray Drying Handbook, 4th edition, George Godwin, London.
4. Smith, J.M., Van Ness, H.C., and Abbott, M.M. (2005). Introduction to Chemical Engineering
Thermodynamics, 7th edition. Boston: McGraw Hill.
5. McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C., and Harriott, P. (2005). Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering,
7th edition, McGraw-Hill, Singapore.
Websites
The percentage recovery of the product can be increased by some modifications of the existing
system. They are explained below with appropriate diagrams:
Bag filter
Bag filters work very simply. Air is pulled through the filter and drawn by the exhaust fan. The
milk powder is collected on the bags while air is allowed to pass through the filter medium. A
compressed air jet frees the powder from the bag and drops into a hopper and out of the system.
The main features of bag filter are its relatively low fan energy consumption and its usefulness
for low density products. It has relatively high maintenance costs. But it is useful for friable
products to prevent particle degradation. It is used downstream of cyclone for emission control
when no liquid effluent is desired.
Wet scrubber
In a wet scrubber, the polluted gas stream is brought into contact with the scrubbing liquid, by
spraying it with the liquid, by forcing it through a pool of liquid, or by some other contact
method, so as to remove the pollutants. Here the powders are the one to be separated.
Main features of wet scrubber are discussed below:
Typically a venture type is used.
Electrostatic precipitator
Degree of application decides the importance of process. Spray drying technology is widely
applied in pharmaceutical fields as well as non-pharmaceutical fields.
Non-pharmaceutical applications:
Industrial applications:
Spray dryers are used with an enormous range of products, because of their wide range of
utilityand convenient product form. A partial list would include coffee, milk, detergents,
dyestuffs, pesticides, polymers, tile slips, blood plasma, enzymes, penicillin, starch, metal
concentrates, kaolin, alumina and iron oxide furnace fume washing.
Solutions, slurries, pastes which are heat sensitive and cannot be exposed to the high temperature
atmosphere for a long time and cannot be dewatered mechanically and contain ultra-fine
particles are dried by spray dryer. This is the most successful applications of spray dryers.
The chief advantages of spray dryers are the very short drying time, which permits drying of
highly heat sensitive materials and the production of solid or hollow spherical particles. The
desired consistency, bulk density, appearance and flow properties of some products, such as,
foods or synthetic detergents, may be difficult or impossible to obtain in any other type of dryer.
Plastics, Resins
Ceramic Materials
Washing Powder
Pesticides
Fertilizers
Dyestuffs- Pigments
Mineral Ore Concentrates & Cement
General Organic & Inorganic Chemicals
In Spray Cooling, Spray Absorption, Spray Concentration, Spray Reaction
Milk products
Baby Food
Coffee/Tea- whiteners
Cheese
Ice Cream mix
High Fat Powder for bakery use (also Butter)
Meats
Edible Protein from vegetable sources
Wheat Gluten
Sugar products
In the co-current flow dryer, the spray is directed into the hot air entering the dryer and both pass
through the chamber in the same direction. Spray evaporation is rapid, and the temperature of the
drying air is quickly reduced by the vaporization of water. The product does not suffer from heat
degradation since once the moisture content reaches the target level, the temperature of the
particle does not increase greatly because the surrounding air is now much cooler. Dair y and
other heat-sensitive food products are prefer ably dried in co-current dryers.
In this dryer design, the spray and the air are introduced at opposite ends of the dryer, with the
atomizer positioned at the top and the air entering at the bottom. A counter-current dryer offers
more rapid evaporation and higher energy efficiency than a co-current design. Because the driest
particles are in contact with hottest air, this design is not suitable for heat-sensitive
products.
Counter-current dryers normally use nozzles for atomization because the energy of the spray can
be directed against the air movement. Soaps and detergents are commonly dried in countercurrent
dryers.
Dryers of this type combine both co-current and counter current flow. In a mixed flow dryer, the
air enters at the top and the atomizer is located at the bottom. Like the counter-current design, a
mixed flow dryer exposes the driest particles to the hottest air, so this design is not used with
heat-sensitive products.
In a single stage dryer, the moisture is reduced to the target (typically 2-5% by weight) in one
pass through the dryer. The single stage dryer is used in the majority of designs.
In a two stage dryer, the moisture content of product leaving the chamber is higher (5-10%) than
for the final product. After leaving the chamber, the moisture content is further reduced during a
second stage. Second stage drying may be done in a fluidized bed dryer or a vibrating bed dryer.
1. Vertical dryer
The chamber of a vertical (tower) dryer has the form of a tall cylinder with a cone-shaped
bottom.Spray nozzles may be located at the top (co-current flow) or bottom (counter-current or
mixed flow) of the chamber. Inlets for the drying air may be located at the top, bottom or side of
the chamber. Vertical spray dryers are usually large and the residence time of sprayed
particles is relatively long, allowing the use of higher flow nozzles such as the TD, which
produce relatively large particles.
In the world of industrial dryers, there are few types that accept pumpable fluids as the
feed material at the inlet end of the process and produce dry particulate at the outlet. The main
advantage of spray drying is the remarkable versatility of the technology, evident when
analyzing the multiple applications and the wide range of products that can be obtained. From
very fine particles for pulmonary delivery to big agglomerated powders for oral dosages, from
amorphous to crystalline products and the potential for one-step formulations, spray drying
offers multiple opportunities that no other single drying technology can claim. This flexibility
and reproducibility makes spray drying the process of choice for many industrial drying
operations.
Offers high precision control over Particle size, Bulk density, organic volatile impurities
and residual solvents.
Powder quality remains constant during the entire run of the dryer.
Nearly spherical particles can be produced, uniform in size and frequently hollow, thus
reducing the bulk density of the product.
The equipment is very bulky and with the ancillary equipment is expensive.
The overall thermal efficiency is low, as the large volumes of heated air pass through the
chamber without contacting a particle, thus not contributing directly to the drying.
The capital cost of the equipment is high per unit annual weight of product, particularly
for low capacities.
The equipment requires a large amount of space
The recovery of dusty product from the exit gases may be a troublesome problem or
involve the use of expensive equipment.
The formation of a spray and then connecting the spray with air is characteristic feature of spray
drying. In the spray drying process the dryable liquid slurry is pumped through a nozzle or a
rotary disk atomizer which sprays the feed fine droplets. The droplets are subjected to a steam of
hot air flowing either co-currently or counter-currently or complex mixture of two paths. As the
atomized droplets fall, the moisture evaporates to the hot gas, leaving the solid materials as
particles. These small particles are swept with the gas into cyclone separator in which the
particles are separated.
Considering the efficiency of the dryer the following parameters will also be controlled
Regular checking of the atomizer, air fans and powder collector will be maintained as they
controls the greater part of balanced mechanical work. Filters are required to check the atomizer.
Bag filter installation tend to require costly maintenance of losses of expensive dried
products are to be prevented. Checking of instruments must be frequent where close
temperature control is required. In view of the considerable surface areas of spray drying
All the usual automatic flame safety devices must be included on direct and indirect fuel-fired
heaters and complete interlocking of safety and operating controls for start-up and shut down
procedures, particularly in the case of the latter to guard against accidental failure of any part of
the system.
The variables which influences the design of a spray dryer are in general as follows -
Atomizer selection
The size and installment of the drying chamber
Method of air introduction and the air disperse
Separation auxiliaries
The selection of the variable are determined by the physical characteristics of the desired
products, such as-
The selection of the atomizer for a given spray drying operation depends upon the nature of the
feed and the particle size distribution required in the final dried product. The choice of the
atomizer influences the design of the entire spray chamber. Nozzles spray axially in the spr ay
chamber and require a vertically long, relatively thin tower. Disk atomizers spray radial. So here
the spray tower must have a large diameter but can be shorter. The cone-angle at the bottom of
The design of the drying chamber is dependent on the consideration of direction and degree of
atomization, air flow pattern, desired products characteristics and the reaction time for drying, air
flow rates and discharge requirements. The basic design will be determined by the direction to
which the atomized droplet will take an injection from the atomizer.
The other design variables are the drying rate, the time exposure if the droplets to the drying
atmosphere, thermal efficiency, method of separation etc. The drying rate depends upon the
temperature, humidity and flow conditions of the drying gas, the size of droplets produced by the
atomizer and the properties of the materials being dried. The time exposure depends on the drop
size, particle shape and density and gas flow rate and velocity.
Thermal efficiency can be increased by increasing the inlet temperature. Heat recovery is now
also of much greater interest to the chemical industry. Where product properties allow the
product to be contacted with high temperature air for a short period of time, semi-closed cycle
systems if the partial recycle type are an attractive possibility for recovering some of the waste
heat from the exhaust air normally vented to atmosphere. Heat recovery devices such as heat
pipes and air to air heat exchangers now given more serious consideration, but still now its
installation on spray dryers is rare.
Separation of products
Primary Separation:
Automatically happens inside the spray dryer due to collision. This can be observed when the
production is at large scale i.e. the spray dryer is large.
Secondary Separation:
This needs an external unit for separating the products from humid air (e.g. Cyclone Seperator).
In small scale production a secondary separator is a must.
Experiment number: 05
Summary (10%)
Introduction (10%)
Results (15%)
Discussion (15%)
Conclusion (10%)
Mahmudul Hasan