Pilot Spray Drying Services
Pilot Batch Spray Drying With APD
Our pilot spray drying services offer detailed evaluation and analysis every step of the way. Our team at Advanced Powder Dynamics is equipped to help clients optimize their powder drying process for their unique product. A consultation of pilot spray drying consists of 3 stages:
Stage 1: Liquid specification and dry-ability evaluation (LSDE) – an initial 50mL liquid sample is tested, with no powder produced.
Stage 2: Initial trial on DA-5 dryer – 5gal of liquid raw material are dried at 5lb/hour to produce the first powder for evaluation.
Stage 3: Optimization trial on DA-50 dryer – mid-scale volume of liquid dried at 50lb/hour to prepare for low- to medium-volume production
The DA-50 pilot unit at Advanced Powder Dynamics is equipped for medium-scale drying, up to 45-55 lb/hour with an annual wet throughput of ~200,000 lbs.
Pilot Capabilities
The three stages of pilot assessment are each uniquely tailored to fit the needs of new products:
The liquid specification and dry-ability evaluation (LSDE) is the first stage and requires very little liquid to get started. This stage focuses on a product’s suitability for the drying process.
- Liquid testing requirements: particle size, pH, specific gravity, viscosity, shear factor, and solids concentration
The next stage is to produce a small amount of powder for further testing and evaluation. This is conducted in our specialized DA-5 dryer, with a 5lb/hour drying capacity for small-scale testing of the following conditions:
- Real-time changes to the dynamic atomization process
- Reducing particle size with process changes only
- Developing data-driven next-step proposals
- Powder reproducibility requirements: flowability, compressibility, dispersibility, solubility, bulk and tap densities, moisture content, water activity, and color consistency
See APD in Action
Valensa needed a cyclodextrin expert to support the production of high-quality saw palmetto ingredients for use across food, beverage, and supplement applications. APD’s expertise in cyclodextrin inclusion and dynamic atomization technology made them uniquely qualified for this challenge.
DA-5 dryer minimum order quantities (MOQ) per 8 hours of development work:
Service | Gallons | Lbs (Wet) |
Research and Development (R&D) | 5-8 gal | 42-68 lb |
Low Volume Production (LVP) | 6-12 gal | 50-100 lb |
Our pilot unit product development dryer, or DA-5, is available specifically for trial medium-sized batches. This drying unit offers the chance to test certain qualities and optimizations for each product:
- Optimization – product stability
- Process Control – product sizing, separation during drying, nozzle size
- Scale-up capabilities
- Low volume tolling – lower minimum order quantity (MOQs)
DA-50 dryer minimum order quantities (MOQ) per 8 hours of development work:
| Service | Gallons | Lbs (Wet) |
| Research and Development (R&D) | 20-30 gal | 167-250 lb |
| Low Volume Production (LVP) | 55-300 gal | 460-2,500 lb |
Unique Engineering Capabilities
At Advanced Powder Dynamics, our main goal in particle engineering is to optimize three focus areas: development, technology, and processing.
- Development: improving formulation of dried products
- Better delivery from liquid to dryer
- Lower molecular weight particles
- Hydrophobic properties
- Improved formulations for granule strength, controlled release, flow properties, and dispersibility
- Technology: providing new and improved methods to protect products during drying
- Scalable and repeatable dryers
- Gentle drying without thermal stress or mechanical shear
- Controlled drying and control of particle size
- Process: approaches each product formulation with best practices to maintain integrity and quality
- Formulation of powder: optimizes viscosity, concentration of solids, wet particle size, ingredients, and carriers
- Process conditions: offers differences in evaporative cooling, flow rate, droplet size, inlet and outlet temperatures
- Options: nozzles, venturis, configurations, drying settings, atomization energy
- Feed type: suspension, solution, emulsion
Learn more about how particle size reduction and cyclodextrin inclusion can improve your products.
APD’s Dynamic Atomization Improves Powdered Products
Advanced Powder Dynamics utilizes Dynamic Atomization (DA) technology and equipment to improve drying methods while maintaining the stability and activity of the dried product. Our DA-5 small scale and DA-50 medium scale Dynamic Atomization dryers offer fast (~0.5 second) and low pressure (< 5psi) operations for protection against high temperatures and high pressure shearing. These are also equipped with engineering controls, such as different nozzle sizes and configurations, to suit the needs of each product.
This drying technique allows our trained technicians to optimize the process of powder development through multiple industrial settings. This offers improvements to the following areas:
- Low product degradation
- Higher viscosities/larger solids at lower cost
- High dryer flexibility for multiple products across different drying conditions
- High thermal efficiency in drying without heat damage
- High throughput at low output/exit temperatures
Get In Touch
To learn more about our pilot spray drying services, contact us or call (928) 492-4040.
