Spray drying of food ingredients and applications of CFD in spray drying

The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) packages in the area of spray drying has been reviewed by Bahu (Bahu, 1992, Proc. Eighth International Drying Symposium, IDS ʹ92, Montreal, Canada, pp. 74–91) and Reay (Reay, 1988, Proc. Sixth International Drying Symposium, IDS ʹ88, Versailles, France, KL-1–KL-8), and the movement towards the use of CFD by dryer manufacturers has been outlined by Masters (Masters, 1994, Drying Technology, 12 (1 & 2), 235–237, 1994). Applications include tighter design of spray dryers and reducing operational problems, such as wall deposition. There is still considerable scope for the application of this approach, and here possible future directions for application are reviewed. Particular issues in the use of spray drying for food ingredients are identified and discussed, namely thermal degradation, aroma loss and particle stickiness.