We turn your liquid product into powder with the quality, particle size and rehydration your process requires. We design and manufacture the complete plant: chamber, atomisation, hot air generation, fines recovery and conveying of the dry product.
Capacities are expressed as evaporation: we manufacture configurable and custom-built equipment of up to 1,500 kg/h.
Spray drying is the most widely used industrial technology for obtaining powdered solids from a liquid feed. The solution or suspension is atomised into a spray of fine droplets that come into contact with a stream of hot air inside the drying chamber. Drying the droplets forms very low-moisture particles, which may or may not agglomerate inside the same chamber.
It is the right technology for heat-sensitive products: residence times are very short and the product temperature remains relatively low.
Our command of the technology allows us to offer plants with different configurations depending on the type of product, the properties of the liquid feed and the properties required in the dry product.
Spray drying chamber in operation.
Each product defines the configuration of the equipment. These are the families we are asked about most; if yours is not on the list, we can still evaluate it with a prior trial.
Whole and skimmed milk powder, whey, permeates and protein concentrates. Agglomeration and instantising for fast rehydration.
Instant coffee, egg powder, flavourings, natural colourants, hydrolysates and plant extracts.
Active ingredients and excipients, with sanitary finish and material traceability.
Salts, coagulants such as polyaluminium chloride, ceramics, detergents and products that require a closed cycle with inert gas.
Six decisions define the result. We define them together with your technical team, with the product in hand, before the mechanical design.
The chambers have different spraying devices to ensure droplet size and uniformity. The rotary atomiser gives greater flexibility in operating flow rate, with droplets of variable size. Nozzles are less flexible in feed flow rate, but generate smaller, more uniform droplets. Both systems work in most applications: it is decided case by case.
Depending on the type of chamber and the product, the air can flow co-current, entering at the top and leaving at the bottom; counter-current, from bottom to top; or in mixed flow, with inlets at the top and bottom and outlet at the top.
More stages mean a more granulated product and lower energy cost.
The liquid reaches its final moisture in a single process. It gives a fine powder, with medium rehydration, at the lowest initial investment.
The product leaves the chamber with somewhat more moisture and finishes drying in an external vibrating fluid bed. Same chamber, different operating conditions.
Chamber with an internal static fluid bed plus an external vibrating bed. The product goes down to 12-15 % moisture in the chamber, to 5-6 % in the internal bed and to final moisture outside, with final cool air so it can be bagged without caking.
The internal static bed works with an independent air stream, which allows the temperature over the almost-dry product to be controlled: it is the most suitable option for heat-sensitive products. Much of the agglomeration that favours rehydration takes place there, something sought after in milk powder and instant coffee.
When the presence of oxygen is undesirable, because of by-product formation or the risk of explosion with flammable products, we design and build systems with inert drying air or gas (N₂, CO₂) in a semi-closed or closed cycle. The oxygen content is controlled and the release of unwanted gaseous compounds to the atmosphere is avoided.
In direct heating, outside air is mixed with the combustion gases until the required flow rate and temperature are reached, and that mixture comes into contact with the product. For certain foods indirect heating is used: the air is heated through a heat exchanger and the combustion gases never touch the product.
Recirculating a portion of the powder produced back to the chamber partially agglomerates the particles and leaves internal voids: water gets in, contacts a large surface and the product hydrates easily. Agglomeration is completed in the internal fluid bed. To ensure dispersibility, lecithin can also be applied to the final product as a fine surface spray.
We test your product at our pilot plant and measure how it behaves before the final mechanical design. Less risk for your investment.
Our own metalworking capacity in Argentina, built to export standards. Spare parts and service without importing anything.
Equipment commissioned in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Technical backing from SEI Contreras, with engineers who speak your language and look after your plant.
We manufacture configurable and custom-built equipment of up to 1,500 kg/h of evaporation. Capacity is always expressed as water evaporated, not as powder produced: the water defines the size of the chamber and the energy consumption.
It depends on the powder you need. The rotary disc works well with suspensions and viscous products and gives a finer particle; the pressure nozzle produces a larger, denser particle. In the pilot plant trials it is defined with the real product.
If the product comes in diluted, yes. Evaporating water in a falling film evaporator costs a fraction of what it costs to evaporate it inside the dryer. In the drying calculator on this site you can see how much you save with your own figures.
WITech D&E designs and manufactures spray dryers in Argentina, with more than 30 years of experience, more than 190 projects completed in 10 countries and its own pilot plant at Parque Empresarial Austral, Pilar, to test your product before you invest.
With the product, the capacity and the end use we will reply in less than 24 business hours, with a first technical assessment. If you wish, we can arrange a trial with your sample.
