Pilot and Scale-Up Trials

You are here:

Home
Pilot and Scale-Up Trials

The second and third steps in our product development process are Pilot trials and Reproducibility and Repeatability (Scale-Up) trials.

Our goal with Pilot Trials is to produce pulse-dried powder for your evaluation, and to optimize dryer throughput, yield, and efficiency, in addition to powder quality.

These trials can be conducted on three different levels and three different grades, depending on your objectives and requirements;

Level I: Initial determination trials: Normally 8 hour trials where we run up to 6 short trial runs to determine dryer settings, temperatures and configurations for atomization and to evaluate initial powder characteristics and performance.

Level II: Optimization trials: 8 to 16 hour trials (could incorporate Level I trials) to further test and develop process aids, optimize run conditions and settings, evaluate and confirm final powder specifications and characteristics and determine protocols and SOP’s,

Level III: Scale-Up Trials: 8 to 16 hour extended runs to prove reproducibility, repeatability, dryer efficiency and product yield. These trials can be done on pilot- or production scale.

Levels I through III will be conducted under one or more quality grades based on your product requirements.

Grade I: Evaluation Grade. Generally, initial determination trials (Level I) are conducted under this grade. Powders are for characteristic evaluation only and not for commercial use or human- or animal consumption,

Grade II: Commercial Evaluation. Powders are produced under protocols accepted for commercial evaluation and testing,

Grade III: Food- / Feed- / Nutraceutical products. Trials are conducted under PCS HACCP and GMP protocols.

Our Product Development Team will guide you through this process and make proposals toward different levels and grades based on your trial objectives, product requirements and the bench test results.

Please refer to our Getting Started page on how to start your product development process. We require both the “Bench Test Request” and “Pilot Trial Objective” forms to be completed and submitted before we can start the process.

Pulse atomization spray drying is superior to conventional spray drying in many ways and for many reasons. We have experience with over 200 different materials in our dryer, and have obtained very favorable results on minerals, specialty chemicals, foods and nutraceuticals.