Laboratory and pilot spray dryer for R&D and small-scale productions.

Spray drying is a method of producing a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by rapidly drying with a hot gas. This is the preferred method of drying of many thermally-sensitive materials such as foods and pharmaceuticals. Usually such equipment have large dimensions, hardly affordable for small laboratories. An Italian university spin-off located in North-West Italy (Piedmont Region) with thorough experience in R&D formulation development in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nutraceutical fields, has developed a special spray dryer prototype designed for R&D and small-scale productions. With a view to helping scientists’ fast and effective R&D and scale-up operations, the equipment is designed to replicate the behaviour of a production unit, while maintaining an extremely compact design, useful in small laboratories. Chamber size and cyclone have been developed for best powder recovery and the equipment is able to record all the process parameters for accurate post process evaluation. Moreover, this is the first spray dryer equipment controlled by rugged tablet: the software have a unique feature named "DoS", helping scientists to easy transfer the process parameters to industrial plant. The company now wishes to bring the prototype to the market and is looking for foreign partners interested in promoting the spray dryer in target countries through commercial agreement with technical assistance. Potential partners should have a good knowledge of local market rules, as well as technical skills related to spray drying methods and related application fields (pharmaceutical and food sectors), to provide technical assistance to local clients. The company is also open to the creation of joint ventures with interested partners, with a view to adapting the equipment to specific local market segments and distributing it in target countries. Further to thorough market and competitors’ analysis, the company has selected the following preferential target countries for the initial commercial development of its equipment, due to their potential market dimensions and characteristics: Japan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Brazil and Peru. Nevertheless, requests coming from other countries will be also evaluated.