Current Market-Driven Spray Drying Development Activities

Spray drying is a highly a complex operation with the movement of countless droplets/particles in turbulent drying medium flows under changing temperature and humidity conditions. Market (or custom) driven technology development has therefore always played a significant role in industrial spray drying activities owing to the difficulties in designing and operating spray dryers on the basis of theoretical analysis. Indeed, it was the breakthrough as a result of industrial motivated developments in the 1960s of being able to handle solvent based and abrasive liquid formulations plus the incorporation of supportive drying technologies to dry “difficult” products that laid the foundation for a rapid increase in the number of different spray drying applications covering a wide range of industries. In past decades, it was technology advancement alone that was sufficient as the driving force. Today this is not the case. Market-driven development programmes need also to focus on accompanying aspects of safety and environmental impact, and for new ideas to be applied in industry, there must be a strong economic element to enhance a profitable value-added powder production. Although spray drying is considered a mature drying technology by today's industrial standards, the technology still needs to develop to cope with new product and dried product quality demands. Furthermore, there remains the ever-present situation of spray dryer end-users faced with continuous increasing market competition for their products and the need to comply with changing national and international environmental and operational safety directives. This situation and the further evolution of a global economy will continue to stimulate market driven development programmes. Current activities in the field are the subject of this article.