Through a spate of recent factory visits to dairy Evaporators and Spray Dryers, I’m reminded that many existing milk and whey powder plants struggle with trying to achieve the capacity for which their Spray Dryer was originally designed. Time and time again, I see that plants have had some episode in their past, whether it’s operationally related like plugged cyclones, or safety related, like a baghouse fire, that has caused them to dial back the plant capacity for a time. After the situation is remedied, they never return to the design capacity of the plant. Either they are unsure of the process technology, or simply have lost the knowledge through staff turn-over.
This shouldn’t be the case. Evaporators and Spray Dryers are thermodynamic processes, and so long as they achieved design capacity at commissioning, and so long as the product remains the same, the original design capacity should always be able to be achieved.
Jim Kent, Caloris Business Development Manager and Spray Dryer Expert
The physics and thermodynamics don’t change. An Evaporator or Spray Dryer is not like a engine that loses horsepower after years of use. To the contrary, the manufacturers are usually conservative in their design and an extra 10-20% capacity ought to be able to be captured without too much difficulty.
If your Evaporator or Spray Dryer is stuck running below the capacity for which it was originally designed, give Caloris a call. In most cases, I think we can help you straighten that out. If you haven’t captured that additional 10-20% that’s usually part of the conservative design, we might have some ideas for you there too. And if you’re trying to de-bottleneck your process and optimize your production to take it to the next level, that’s a challenge we can really sink our teeth into.
This blog post was written by Caloris Business Development Manager and Spray Dryer Expert Jim Kent. You can contact Jim via email for more information or call Caloris at 410-822-6900.