4. Calculating and sizing a spray-drying unit

To design a drying chamber, a number of parameters need to be set (solid production rate, drying air temperature, etc.). In terms of the process, the engineer's task is to :

• choose the type of spray system;

• determine the operating conditions and energy requirements of the operation;

• as well as dimensioning the drying chamber to obtain a product with the desired particle size, homogeneous density and regular shape.

The volume of the plant and the operating regime chosen must be in line with the factors that influence drying kinetics: the nature of the products to be dried, the amount of bound water present in the products, and the particle size properties of the droplets produced during spraying. The thermodynamic equilibrium of the system...