ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses different design approaches for process control of spray dryer operation. It presents static methods for open-loop control of spray drying process. Spray drying is one of the major convective drying technologies for the removal of liquid from a suspension or solution. The solution or suspension is sprayed by one or several nozzles, arranged in an array, into the spray tower, usually from the top, but there are also designs whereby the spray is introduced from the bottom or from the sides of the tower. Due to the industrial importance, process modelling of spray dryer operation is an active field of research and development, having led to models of varying degrees of complexity. The chapter also presents the applications of open-loop control and open-loop optimization and discusses the feedback and optimal control. It then provides some examples of the use of artificial neural network (ANN) for open-loop control and optimisation of spray drying operation.
