The SDMicro™ is a fully functional miniature spray drying plant with the same functional components as a large industrial spray dryer. It has a two-fluid nozzle for the atomization of the liquids, a drying chamber, a cyclone for primary separation of powders and a bag filter with compressed air pulse cleaning. The drying chamber has a diameter of 200 mm. The SDMicro™ is applicable to both development of products and processes, as well as actual production, so both the drying chamber and the bag filter housing are available in different materials, e.g. glass, isolated stainless steel. The transparent glass version makes it possible to observe the spray drying process and directly observe the atomizing and formation of possible product deposits, as well as estimating the effect of process parameter changes such as the gas flow of the atomizing nozzle, the temperature and flow rate of the drying gas. After determination of a suitable set of process parameters, further production of powder can be carried out with drying chamber and bag filter housing of isolated stainless steel. The small cyclone has been designed to separate all particle sizes larger than 2 (m in order to achieve a high product recovery. The bag filter with CIP-able bags separates more than 99% of particles larger than 0.3 (m, ensuring a rather high total product yield.
