New Pilot Spray Dryer for Small and Large-Scale Testing
Willmar, MN. – RELCO®, a Koch Separation Solutions company, announced the launch of the Parvus™ pilot spray dryer for use in a range of food applications. The system is available as the Parvus Nomad, a single-stage dryer designed for trial batches and smaller production volumes up to 10 kg (22 lb) of water evaporation, or the Parvus Multi-Stage dryer which incorporates a wide body design and handles larger production volumes of up to 25 kg (55 lb) of water evaporation. The pilot spray dryer is intended to offer full flexibility to customers seeking initial testing capabilities and future scalability, with the potential to integrate with other pilot technology to create data for full-scale planning.
“Through our design process, it was important to consider every aspect from our customer’s point of view, from ease of use, maneuverability, space constraints, and overall footprint, to transport and shipping considerations,” said Ross Henjum, Director of RELCO Evaporation, Drying & Powder Process Engineering. “These pilot spray drying systems offer the same moisture control and powder manipulation abilities as our full-scale spray drying systems, but at a size that caters to our customer’s small scale and trial needs.”
The systems are designed with components pre-attached to the skid which allows for quick setup and take-down. Each system also fits completely within one or two shipping containers, including add-on options such as a fluid bed, baghouse, and product preheaters.
“We’re excited to add these systems to our line of dryer offerings as we’ve seen a lot of emerging opportunities spanning from plant protein to fermentation to collagen where such a small-scale system is ideal for trials,” Ross continued.
“We couldn’t ignore the demand to create smaller test systems to enable scale-up in fast-growing food markets,” adds Wim Wilcke, VP of RELCO Sales & Marketing. “While customers around the world know us best for our large-scale thermal separation technologies in the dairy and food industries, it made sense to transfer our depth of knowledge of drying systems to a small-scale and flexible option that offered the versatility our customers were asking for across other markets. These small-scale drying systems will allow us to drive collaborative innovation with our preferred partners and offer combined demonstrations with our other technologies, including membrane filtration.”
RELCO intends to offer this globally. Customers can rent or purchase these systems and work with the RELCO team to design and develop plans for process expansion.
