Dynamic Atomization: Revolutionizing Spray Drying for nutraceutical and Pharmaceuticals

TL;DR

Dynamic atomization is transforming the spray drying landscape by offering precise, high-speed drying that preserves the integrity of heat-sensitive compounds. This technology enables the creation of nano-sized particle with enhanced bioavailability, shelf life, and flowability, making it ideal for nutraceutical, pharmaceuticals, and food applications. The discussion highlights how dynamic atomization differs from traditional spray drying by rapidly flash-drying materials at high heat for only 0.4 seconds, avoiding the jagged morphology and clumping associated with prolonged exposure to heat. Key considerations for spray drying heat-sensitive botanicals include controlled temperature adjustments, rapid drying with minimal residence time, and effective atomization to ensure uniform particle size. Additionally, microencapsulation and cyclodextrin inclusion are explored as advanced techniques for protecting sensitive compounds and improving solubility. The conversation also touches on toll spray drying and contract powder processing, emphasizing the importance of precision in these servicess to meet industry demands. Overall, the intersection of dynamic atomization and spray drying servicess is unlocking new possibilities for the life sciences sector, from supplements to pharmaceuticals.

Dynamic Atomization vs. Traditional Spray Drying: A Game-Changer

Will: Let me describe it like this, Stephen. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but it might help with the audience. Imagine a piece of popcorn. In a sense, a perfectly popped piece of popcorn. It has almost like a cashmere texture to the outside. It’s soft, it’s smooth, it’s puffy, it’s full. And yet if you roast it becomes hard it becomes rocky You can turn it into a lunar landscape just by baking it excessively long And the difference between what we do with dynamic atomization and what spray drying often does is that we’re flash drying things for four tenths of a second at high heat. We’re making all of our particles exactly the same and we’re aiming for that perfect exterior, soft and smooth and repeatable.

Will: But when you’re roasting things for 30 seconds under heat, like spray drying, which is roughly a target, you tend to turn the outside of particles into an inconsistent, often jagged morphology that’s like a lunar landscape.

You’ll have pits, You’ll have protrusions. It’ll have an appearance that if you look at it under a microscope, it has a rocky, jagged morphology to it. It doesn’t flow. It’s less soluble as a result of that. It’s inconsistent. No one particle is the same. It’s the opposite of what you’re looking for. That explains how you get differences particle to particle within a production run, and it explains how those individual particles are not suited to performance.

Will: We want performance of individual particles. We want performance in terms of solubility, and we want particles that match the needs of the customers, regardless of what the application of those particles may be. They are designed and engineered to suit the customer and the customer’s needs. And so we can design and engineer those particles to do that.

It’s much easier when you have a process that produces under the conditions for the dynamic atomization technology approach, not roasting and spray drying and creating a lunar landscape.

Ulli: That’s a great analogy. That really does help just even visualize and give a good context for a very technical question. So the next question I think pertains to a handful of the aspects that we were going over in some of the previous questions. And I know, Hendrik, you touched on this in the very first question, possibly. But how can microencapsulation through spray drying mask unpleasant tastes and odors in supplement formulation?

Microencapsulation and Cyclodextrin: Protecting Sensitive Compounds

Hendrik: Nobody wants to chew a bad tasting gummy, right? Microencapsulation is an advanced food processing technology specifically developed for protecting sensitive compounds, but also to mask odors and taste, or to protect flavors by encapsulating the core compound or nutrient in a protective encapsulant as a protecting mechanism or for odor and taste masking. The particles or nutrient is either encased in its own protective cage, think of a baseball in a baseball glove, or it could be coated or encapsulated by multiple smaller wall agents or encapsulants. As example, a soccer ball covered by a multiple of golf balls. Each one has its own applications. Different technologies were developed in the last 20 years, such as spray drying itself, but also emulsification and inclusion complex technologies, of which psychodexin inclusions or CDIs are the most prominent. And psychodextrin inclusion also improves solubility, water activity, shelf life, and enhanced flowability by encapsulating each individual molecule in its own protective dextrin cage, creating nano-sized particles for taste and odor masking, but also for excellent bioavailability.

Hendrik: That makes sense.

And that was what I was going to ask about when you started talking about it in the very beginning, if the cyclodextrin inclusions were going to be a big factor in that, but it seems like they are. Moving on to the next question that is in a similar vein, but a little bit different, which is what are the best practices for spray drying heat-sensitive botanicals and herbal extracts without losing potency? Yes, similar to the fourth question that you have asked. Best practice considerations should include at minimum the following two items. First, choosing the right formulation and inclusion technology to protect the molecules. Second, the best drying and particle engineering technology that supports high potency requirements. Low potency is almost always due to high exposure to excessive heat, mechanical shear, higher controlled humidity, and then extended or inefficient drying time that is not removing all or enough moisture from each particle.

Best Practices for Spray Drying Heat-Sensitive Botanicals

Hendrik: And then again, what I mentioned earlier, environmental exposure. Best practices should include the following. Controlled and specific temperature adjustments, drying at lower temperatures, but still rapid drying with no or low residence time to prevent thermal degradation, effective atomization to create uniform droplet size for optimum particle size, density, and shape. It should support the latest encapsulation techniques such as psychodexin inclusions to protect the active ingredient and maintain stability. And then lastly, control over powder moisture content is very important. High residual moisture and water activity, which we’ll mention earlier, which is a non-chemical bound water in foods, can cause caking, microbial growth, and shorten cell flies. APD’s product innovation and development team will work with customers during the R&D project to ensure that all potency requirements are identified, addressed, and included in the product and process development phase.

Hendrik: It should support the latest encapsulation techniques such as psychodexin inclusions to protect the active ingredient and maintain stability. And then lastly, control over powder moisture content is very important. High residual moisture and water activity, which we’ll mention earlier, which is a non-chemical bound water in foods, can cause caking, microbial growth, and shorten cell flies.

APD’s product innovation and development team will work with customers during the R&D project to ensure that all potency requirements are identified, addressed, and included in the product and process development phase.

Will: Stephen, I think people have to understand that these materials are often quite fragile. Most of these materials start off not particularly bioavailable, and in most of these applications, you’re asking them to perform in the human body. And those are three very large challenges all combined. And therefore, brute force methodology, which is generally how I would characterize spray drying, is just not the right approach. The systems that Hendrick is describing that come together through advanced powder dynamics, particularly driven by the dynamic atomization drawing, it’s a system that has nuance and finesse.

Will: It works around the challenges that these molecules have so that we’re able to bring out the inherent value of the molecules without damaging or destroying them, and that can be a real challenge. It’s just an inherent value of the drying technology that works with the molecules without destroying their inherent value rather than overpowering them and destroying what value is there from nature.

Ulli: Yeah, and it sounds like the precision aspects of the process that Hendrick is describing allow for just such a more accurate assessment of what’s even going on, whereas spray drying, like what you’re talking about, the brute force methodology, it seems like not only is there less precision of assessment of the situation, It also seems as though the process is much more haphazard and creates a lot more variation within what’s even going on within a batch, it seems like, from the descriptions.

Is that an accurate understanding of that?

Hendrik: I would agree.

Ulli: Okay. That’s absolutely true. Great. Well, moving forward with that line of questions and into something a little bit different. How do I ensure my spray dried mineral products meet the purity and particle size specifications required by my customers? I think you touched on this a little bit in terms of what APD does, but I think what would be really helpful is to have a little bit of an understanding of maybe some of what those requirements might be or who that customer might be, but specifically how other people do that and then how you guys communicate that.