Prediction of air-drying of milk droplet under relatively high humidity using the reaction engineering approach

Spray-drying is the prime process for manufacturing powders. Optimization of spray-drying processes requires both modeling the drying characteristics of a single milk droplet and the dryer-wide simulations incorporating computational fluid dynamics. In computational fluid dynamics simulations, it is desirable to have an accurate yet simple model for drying of single droplet, which does not require resolving partial differential equation. Here the experimental results on constant drying conditions with high humidity air flows are reported for the first time. Previously, a mathematical model using the reaction engineering approach (the REA model) was established using the very dry air conditions. The same REA model has been used to predict the current high humidity results. It has been shown that the predictions agree well with the experimental results, showing the good promise of this approach.