Case Study

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Spray Dr ying In The Food Industr y

M. Verschueren, R.E.M Verdurmen, M. Gunsing, J. Straatsma, NIZO food research, Ede, the Netherlands S. Blei, M. Sommerfeld, Department of Engineering Science, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany The use of Knowledge Capture to develop Expert Systems or Vertical Applications is an area of high interest across the CAE community. Here we see an example of such a system being developed for a specialist CFD application.
pray drying is an essential unit operation for the manufacture of many products with specific powder properties. It is characterized by atomization of a solution or suspension into droplets, followed by subsequent drying of these droplets by evaporation of water or other solvents. Spray drying is used for the manufacture of many consumer and industrial products such as instant food products, laundry detergents, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and agrochemicals. The best known example of an instant food product is milk powder, but instant beverages (e.g. coffee) can also be produced by spray drying. spray chamber through the air outlet. Powder particles in the outlet air (small dry particles) are separated by a cyclone and can be reintroduced into the spray chamber (fines return) or into the fluid bed to enhance the agglomeration process.

Drying and Fouling

The primary goal of spray drying is removing water. Under normal operating conditions the powder particles are dry enough before they hit the walls of the spray dryer that they do not stick to the walls. The drying behavior strongly depends on the spray characteristics and the feed composition. Stickiness is related to the drying state of the particles. Incorrect operating conditions, which do not match the drying behavior of the particles, can therefore lead to fouling.

Spray Drying Equipment

Figure 1 schematically shows an example of an industrial spray dryer for the production of agglomerated powder. In the spray chamber the incoming product is atomized by rotary wheel atomizers or pressure nozzles and dried by the hot air introduced at the top. The powder particles leave the spray dryer at the bottom into the fluid bed, where further drying takes place. Most of the air leaves the

Figure 2: Particle trajectories

Figure 3: Humidity

Figure 1: An industrial 2-stage spray dryer with fines return (courtesy of Anhydro)

The air flow field, the particle trajectories (Figure 2) and the local temperature and humidity (Figure 3) inside the spray dryer can be computed by using Euler-Lagrange CFD techniques, taking into account the coupling for mass, momentum and energy. The difference from other spray calculations (e.g. diesel sprays) mainly concerns the drying part: stickiness primarily depends on the drying state of the outer layer of the particles. Additional submodels for moisture diffusion inside the particles and for the relation between the drying state and stickiness are therefore required to be able to compute the drying and fouling behavior of spray drying systems.

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Case Study
The EDECAD project
Agglomeration during spray drying is considered to be a difficult process to control. The main cause of this is the complex interaction of the process variables: the atomization process, the mixing of spray and hot air, the drying of suspension droplets and the collision of particles which might lead to coalescence or agglomeration. As a consequence, agglomeration during spray drying is operated by trial-and-error. In 2001 an EC-sponsored project started, coordinated by NIZO food research, entitled EDECAD (Efficient DEsign and Control of Agglomeration in spray Drying machines, www.edecad.com). The aim of the project was to develop an industrially validated CFD model to predict agglomeration processes in spray drying machines. The modelling technique used is an extension of the EulerLagrange model for the drying and fouling behavior of spray dryers described above. Besides the drying model, additional models for collision and agglomeration are required. The initial spray conditions were measured and the sub-models for drying, collision and agglomeration were developed and validated by the academic partners in the project. A stochastic collision model is used to predict the collision probability and impact details. When a collision occurs, the drying state of the particles and the impact details determine whether the particles rebound, coalesce or agglomerate. Agglomeration occurs when particles are sticky. For many food products stickiness is strongly related to glass transition. The particle composition and the moisture content of the outer layer determine the glass transition temperature and thereby the stickiness of the particle, which influences the agglomeration process.

To enhance the accessibility of CFD knowledge, CD adapco and NIZO food research have cooperated to develop an Expert System for predicting the drying and fouling behavior of spray dryers: es-spraydry. An easy-touse Graphical User Interface guides the user through defining the spray drying system, defining the product characteristics, setting up the processing conditions, mesh generation, running the calculations and post-processing the results. The es-spraydry tool can be used to design spray dryers, to check whether a specific dryer is suitable for a specific product or to investigate the effect of changes in processing conditions on the drying and fouling behavior of dryers.

Agglomeration
Some powder properties (e.g. solubility) can be related to the moisture content and the temperature-time history of the particles. For these properties the modelling techniques described above can be used. Many powder quality properties, however, are related to the degree of agglomeration. Agglomeration is a size enlargement process of powders, where small particles combine to form large relatively permanent structures, in which the original particles are still identifiable (see Figure 4). Agglomeration facilitates the handling of powders (free flowing powders without dust formation) and enhances the instant properties of powders (a quick dissolution and dispersion without the formation of lumps). The improved instant properties are a result of the open porous structure of the agglomerates, allowing water to penetrate and disperse throughout to its original constituting particle, forcing the particle to sink.

Figure 4: SEM-photograph of spray dried and agglomerated powder

In a spray dryer agglomeration can take place within the spray of an atomizer, between sprays of various atomizers and between sprays and dry material being introduced into the drying chamber (fines return, see Figure 1). The latter technique is the most effective way to achieve and control agglomeration in spray dryers.

Figure 5: Test case results of the agglomeration model (S. Blei, MLU-Halle)

Figure 5 shows the result of a test calculation in a cubic geometry, initially containing a binary mixture of dry and viscous primary particles. The probability density function Page 31

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of the relative penetration depth is shown for various viscosities. There is a significant influence of viscosity on agglomeration and the structure of agglomerates. With increasing viscosity the mass fraction of agglomerates increases. Moreover, penetration depths are reduced and the agglomerate size distribution becomes narrower, resulting in a larger, more homogeneous agglomerate population with improved powder properties. With the help of CD adapco, NIZO food research integrated all sub-models in STAR-CD. Pilot plant validation trials and industrial scale experiments were carried out by the industrial partners in the project to produce validation data for the CFD model. The final validation work is currently in progress.

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ADVANCED WORKBOOK OF EX AMPLES

REQUEST FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
arlier this year, members will have received a copy of the Advanced Workbook of Examples/Case Studies (Volume 2). The foreword to that document, by the Chairman of the NAFEMS Education and Training Working Group, John Smart, is reproduced below: "In various surveys of NAFEMS members, Education and Training always comes very high on the list of priorities. In discussions at NAFEMS Education and Training Working Group (ETWG) it became apparent that there is a large gap between what is conventionally taught in an undergraduate engineering degree and the ability of finite element programs, a gap that is continually getting bigger. Consequently, the ETWG has commissioned many documents for which the intended reader is the 1 year graduate. This has been defined as an analyst who has graduated with a degree in engineering and spent one year doing linear elastic finite element calculations. Examples of such documents include How to Undertake a Fracture Mechanics Analysis and How to Analyse Composites. "However, in addition to these documents, the ETWG is also aware that there are many pitfalls in undertaking finite element analyses. Accomplished analysts have learnt to avoid many of these problematic areas through experience accumulated over the years. Few, if any, analysts who have reflected on the outcome of their projects would be able to say that they had not either made significant mistakes, or, failed to account for some natural phenomenon in their analyses. You may not wish to be open about this but I would encourage you to share your experience with others. Articles can be published anonymously and you will see that one article in this volume has been provided by A.N. Other. I am pleased to see this and hope it will encourage others to write an article anonymously. The objective is to produce short articles that try to bridge this gap between the undergraduate engineering syllabus and the collective knowledge of the finite element community. "This Advanced Workbook of Examples/Case Studies is the second volume to be published and the title has had Case Studies added to reflect the nature of the articles. The articles have been provided by authors who have responded to a request in Benchmark and the NAFEMS website (www.nafems.org) for articles and I am grateful to them for their efforts. It is hoped that as the NAFEMS membership receives and reads this document there will be many who will say, I could provide a useful article for a future edition, and it is hoped that another volume will be published shortly. If you can provide an article, please contact me." The articles should be relatively short (see the workbook for the sort of article requested) and should aim to show how the unwary can be trapped into making an error. Also, as the technology expands, articles dealing with non-traditional approaches, such as using Promechanica, will be especially welcomed. For any articles that are published, NAFEMS will pay the author 500 / 1750 / $900.

R eferences
[1] M. Sommerfeld, Validation of a stochastic Lagrangian modeling approach for inter-particle collisions in homogeneous isotropic turbulence, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 2001, Vol. 27, 1829-1858. [2] P . Menn, G. Schulte, K. Bauckhage, Experimental Investigation of High Pressure Spray Drying Nozzle Performance at Industrial Operating Conditions, Proc. 9th International Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, July 13-17, Sorrento, Italy. [3] S. Blei, M. Sommerfeld, Lagrangian Modeling of Agglomeration During Spray Drying Processes, Proc. 9th International Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, July 13-17, Sorrento, Italy. [4] R.E.M. Verdurmen, M. Verschueren, J. Straatsma, M. Gunsing, Simulation of Agglomeration in Spray Drying Installations: the EDECAD Project, Proc. 9th International Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, July 13-17, Sorrento, Italy. [5] R.E.M Verdurmen et al., Simulation of Agglomeration in Spray Drying Installations: the EDECAD Project, Drying Technology 2004, to be published.

Contact
CD-Adapco www.cd-adapco.com

If you want to discuss any article, please contact John Smart using the details below.

John Smart Chairman, Education & Training Working Group Email: J.Smart@newi.ac.uk

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