Droplet-Particle Agglomeration of Maltodextrin and Salt in a Small-Scale Spray Dryer.

The technique of in-chamber blending in practice has been investigated, by altering the configuration of a Buchi B290 small-scale spray dryer having a two-fluid nozzle, through adding an extra pipe into the chamber to agglomerate maltodextrin (DE18) particles with 20% salt solution sprayed through the atomizer. Scanning Electron Micrographs showed the importance of splash impacts between salt droplets and maltodextrin particles in this geometry, suggesting that the collision efficiency is strongly affected by whether or not the salt droplets completely surround the dry maltodextrin particles. Changing the air inlet temperature did not affect the measured amount of collisions (from Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy) significantly, but both the main air and the nozzle air flow rates had significant effects on the collision outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]