Spray Drying Process Efficiency Step Change

This industrially-led collaborative project is to develop and commercialise a tool which will enable a step change to the UK spray drying manufacturing process, with a 10% increase in energy efficiency. This fits under the HVM strategy, specifically pillar "Increasing the global competitiveness of UK manufacturing technologies by creating more efficient and effective manufacturing systems". The team will use a novel systems modelling approach to redesign the process for innovative heat management on a single particle scale. Based on extensive modelling capability for spray-drying, the individual particle temperature-time history throughout the spray drying process will be predicted, vs. relying on the current "data blind" black-box methodology. This innovative approach will enable right first time energy usage versus too late or expensive heat recovery approaches, so significantly reducing energy usage and CO2 emissions, without sacrificing product quality.