Particle spray drying parameters

Effect of Spray Drying Parameters on Polyvinyl Chloride Resin Particle Size Distribution and Plastisol Rheology... 

The physical size of the resulting spray-dried particles is dictated by the mass of solute in each droplet and depends on both the size of the droplets atomized into the hot air stream and the concentration of the feed solution. More dilute solutions permit the formation of larger droplets, while more concentrated solutions require smaller droplets. The appropriate feed concentrations and atomization conditions must also be practical to be commercially viable. For example, doubling the feed concentration halves the amount of water, energy, and time required to produce a unit of drug powder. Typically, the spray-drying parameters can be adjusted to produce particles within the size range needed for alveolar deposition. 

In precipitation reactions, powder characteristics depend on the speed of the nucleation of particles and their growth due to the mass flow to the surfaces. In freeze drying and spray drying, powder characteristics primarily depend on the size of droplets, which in turn is determined by the parameters of a nozzle and characteristics of the flow of a carrier gas. Both these methods enable one to obtain powders with very high surface area. 

The number average diameter of microspheres obtained from polymers synthesized, by emulsification of polymer solutions followed by solvent extraction and/or solvent evaporation methods, can be controlled by choosing the appropriate conditions at which particles are produced. However, by this method particles with 15 p,m and with D D > 1.9 are produced. Spray drying did not provide poly(L-Lc) particles with regular spherical shape. Direct synthesis of poly(L-Lc) microspheres by ring-opening polymerization with stepwise monomer addition can be used as a method of choice for the production of microspheres with diameters controlled to ca. 6 p.m and with diameter polydispersity parameter < 1.20. 

Each spray-dried droplet forms a single particle whose size is determined by the droplet size, the dissolved solids of the feed solution, and the density of the resulting solid particle. For a given formulation and process, both the solid content and density of the powder remain constant within a batch and from batch to batch therefore, the distribution of the primary particle size is determined by the droplet size distribution. A narrowly distributed particle size can be achieved with a well-designed atomizer and controlled process parameters. 

Gereg and Capolla developed process parameters determined by a model laboratory bench scale Carver press, model C (Carver Inc. Savannah, Georgia, U.S.A.), which were translated to production scale compactor parameters (6). Their study provided a method to predict whether a material is suitable for roller compaction. Their study objectives were to characterize properties of the material to identify process parameters suitable to achieve the necessary particle size and density using the dry granulation process and then translate laboratory information to a production scale roller compactor. Actually, information developed from a Carver press was correlated and scaled-up to a production scale Fitzpatrick roller compactor. Model IR 520 (Fitzpatrick Co., Elmhurst, Illinois, U.S.A.) The compactor produced very similar powder granule characteristics as the Carver press. Various lactose materials, available as lactose monohydrate or spray dried lactose monohydrate, were used as the model compounds. Results indicated that a parametric correlation could be made between the laboratory bench Carver press and the production scale compactor, and that many process parameters can be transferred directly. 

Theoretical prediction of mean particle sizes is difficult and of little practical importance, since the selection of spray drying operational parameters is based on ejq)erience and pilot-scale test work. The scientific literature, however, contains numerous estimation formulas to help predict the droplet sizes in sprays. Table 12-42 provides nomenclature for these estimation formulas. 

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