Experimental and theoretical investigations of a spray dryer with simultaneous chemical reaction

Reactive spray drying is a modern concept to produce highly dispersed powde rs out of a liquid solution. In contrast to the already established and ind ustrially widely used spray drying, a chemical reaction occurs simultaneous ly in the liquid droplets beside the drying step. The main intention to com bine the two steps of fabrication and processing in one multifunctional rea ctor is to gain tailor-made solid particles with controlled composition, sh ape and diameter from suspension in a single step. However, intensive resea rch work is still necessary to analyze the numerous multi-phase phenomena i n the reactive spray and to provide reliable measurement techniques which a ccomplish contactless high-speed high-resolution data collection inside the disperse spray. The present contribution is a first approach to achieve th is goal by focussing on the development of simulation models for the reacto r design on the basis of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and basic crite ria whether a chemical reaction is applicable for this special type of reac tor. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.