Spray drying is not a new technology. It has been used for many years—C.E. Rogers Co., for example, has been manufacturing spray dryers since the early 1900s—and is a standard technology in the food industry, especially the dairy industry. Nevertheless, incremental improvements are always being made.
In a typical spray dryer, a solution, suspension, or emulsion is pumped to an atomizer at the top of the drying chamber. The atomizer—a rotating wheel or a nozzle—sprays the liquid into a high-veloci…