Spray Drying and Complementary Procedures

Spray drying is recognised as an efficient method of converting liquid flavours into powders. By spray drying it is possible to produce a powder with controlled physical properties such as flowability, residual moisture content and bulk density. At the same time it is possible to control the properties of the active flavour component in terms of its controlled release, its organoleptic quality etc. 

Spray drying is an extremely cost-effective and widely applicable process the equipment has been in use for a long time and it has been optimised over many years. Its advantages are  

Most of the powder is discharged directly from the bottom of the chamber. Spent drying air containing fine powder particles is cleaned in highly efficient cyclones and in some cases further cleaned in a bag filter or a wet scrubber. Powder from the cyclone may be discharged separately or it may be returned to the drying chamber in the vicinity of the atomizer where it will adhere to new droplets and form agglomerates. 

The quality of the spray dried flavour is mainly influenced by 

The liquid is dispersed into the chamber either by centrifugal force or with a nozzle. Today centrifugal atomising is used much more widely as it offers the following advantages  

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