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Monodisperse Droplet Generators as Potential

Atomizers for Spray Drying Technology
a a a a
Winston Duo Wu , Kamlesh C. Patel , Samuel Rogers & Xiao Dong Chen
a
Biotechnology and Food Engineering Group, Chemical Engineering Department, Monash
University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Version of record first published: 05 Dec 2007.

To cite this article: Winston Duo Wu , Kamlesh C. Patel , Samuel Rogers & Xiao Dong Chen (2007): Monodisperse Droplet
Generators as Potential Atomizers for Spray Drying Technology, Drying Technology: An International Journal, 25:12, 1907-1916

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 Drying Technology, 25: 1907–1916, 2007
Copyright # 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0737-3937 print/1532-2300 online
DOI: 10.1080/07373930701727176
Monodisperse Droplet Generators as Potential Atomizers
for Spray Drying Technology
Winston Duo Wu, Kamlesh C. Patel, Samuel Rogers, and Xiao Dong Chen
Biotechnology and Food Engineering Group, Chemical Engineering Department, Monash University,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Spray drying is a widely used unit operation for manufacturing
powders of different characteristics. Many technological improve-
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ments have been made in the last few decades, and a great amount
of research work is still being conducted. Recently, the hybrid spray-
drying technique was reported, which combines the ink-jet tech-
nology with spray drying in order to produce particles of uniform
characteristics.[1–4] The monodisperse droplet generators (MDGs)
have certain features that make them attractive for use as atomizers
in spray-drying operations. In this article, a comprehensive intro-
duction to a variety of monodisperse droplet generators is provided.
The advantages and limitations of these generators are discussed.
The fundamental equations for predictions of the average droplet
size are summarized. The discussion given in this study is aimed
at the development of a hybrid technology that marries a suitable
MDG with the existing spray-dryer technique (yet with some mod-
ifications) to manufacture the product with uniform characteristics
containing micro- to nanosized particles.
Keywords Atomizer; Droplet generators; Droplet size distri-
bution; Identical particles; Monodisperse spray;
Spray drying
INTRODUCTION
Spray drying is a mature industrial operation, widely
used for manufacture of high-quality particulate materials
in many industrial sectors ranging from food to dairy,
chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and ceramics. Spray dryer pro-
ductivity ranges from as little as a few hundred grams to
several tons of powder per hour per dryer. The fundamen-
tal principle in lab-scale and industrial-scale dryers is the
same, although the purpose of powder manufacturing
and the quality of the powder produced during lab-scale
drying and industrial-scale drying can be different.
Remarkable research was conducted in the last four
Correspondence: Professor Xiao Dong Chen, Chair of
Biotechnology and Food Engineering Group, Department of
Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton Campus,
Room 206, Building 36, Victoria 3800, Australia; E-mail: dong.
chen@eng.monash.edu.au
1907
decades to achieve high production rates, better quality
product, lower energy requirements, and economical
design of equipment.[5] Spray-drying technology is still
open to both theoretical and practical research in order
to model various phenomena occurring during spray dry-
ing, improve the product quality and the energy efficiency,
minimize the wall deposition and the overall product
loss, and design and test new engineered products.
Four main processing steps are involved with spray dry-
ing: atomization, mixing of hot gas and spray, evaporation
from droplets, and collection of the dried product.[6–8] Each
step is carried out considering the chemical and physical
properties of the feed, the dryer design, and the requisite
quality of the final product. Atomization, which facilitates
the droplet formation and determines the size and the size
distribution of droplets, plays an important role in achiev-
ing the desired characteristics of the final product. The
commonly used atomizers in dairy and other food indus-
tries are rotary atomizers, pressure nozzles, and pneumatic
(two-fluid) nozzles.[6,7] Sonic atomizers are recently
employed to small-scale spray-drying plants.[8] These
atomizers produce polydisperse sprays to generate large
surface area for favoring rapid heat and mass transfer.
The higher feed-handling capacity of atomizers is realized
by offering the greater kinetic energy to the process of
droplets generation, leading to uneven disintegration of
bulk liquid into a spray of individual droplets with a poly-
size distribution. The typical ranges of droplet size during
spray drying with the rotary atomizers, pressure nozzles,
two-fluid nozzles, and sonic atomizers are 1–600, 10–800,
5–300, and 5–1000 mm, respectively.[8]
The polydispersity of the spray inside the drying cham-
ber leads to complex droplet trajectories and collisions of
droplets with other droplets and the dryer walls. Each
droplet may follow a different route inside the drying
chamber and experience different temperature-time and
humidity-time profiles. This causes variability in the resi-
dence time distribution for particles in the dryer. With
existing spray-drying technology, each particle in the dried
 1908 WU ET AL.
product may have a different shape, size, density, porosity,
moisture content, and nutrient content.
The wide droplet size distribution increases the energy
requirement as well as the particle size distribution in the
final product. Control over droplet characteristics during
atomization is somewhat restricted. This is objectionable
in certain industries where a uniformity of particles is cru-
cial; for example, functional food products, pharmaceuti-
cals, and catalysts.[9] The accuracy of the simulation work
and the reproducibility of the lab=pilot-scale validation
research are also negatively influenced by the size distri-
bution of droplets and the polydispersity of the spray.[10]
Small and uniform particles have recently become
requisite in many applications, such as high-efficacy drug
microcapsules, nutraceuticals, functional food ingredients
(e.g., flavors, antimicrobials, preservatives, vitamins, and
antioxidants), catalysts, etc. Some products in biological
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and pharmaceutical industries require highly spherical
particles for their final applications. For instance, spherical
and uniform particles are highly suitable for the colloidal
drug delivery and dry formulation vehicles because they
provide a practical means of maximizing the efficacy of the
drugs and controlling their release kinetics.[11] Nano- to
micron-sized spherical particles are widely used as signal
reporters (or probes) to detect biomolecules in DNA assay,
immunoassay, and cell bioimaging.[12] Nanoparticulate lyco-
pene and carotenoids are becoming commercially available
in the market as food ingredients. Weiss et al.[13] concisely
reviewed existing and future applications of nanoparticles
in food and biotechnology fields. Micron- and nanosized
spherical particles are likely to offer several advantages such
as higher bioavailability, greater effective exposure area, and
enhanced efficacy and safety during utilization compared to
that of their traditionally manufactured counterparts.
One way to restrict the nonuniformity of the product is
to have droplets with the negligible size distribution and
simple, yet predictable trajectories. Recently, Patel and
Chen[1–3] have published a series of reports on a smart dry-
ing technique, which utilizes a single stream drying
approach. They introduced an ink-jet device, one type of
monodisperse droplet generator (MDG), to a conventional
lab-scale spray dryer in order to produce particles with uni-
form characteristics. This approach seemed to offer good
control over the droplet trajectory, size distribution, and
collisions. This lab curiosity of Patel and Chen[1–3] may
be further extended to manufacture ‘‘smart’’ particles at a
production rate that allows commercialization for applica-
tions such as development and testing of new products and
drying of heat-sensitive materials. In this article, several
MDGs are discussed that may be incorporated to the
spray-drying technology as atomizers in order to produce
particles with uniform characteristics. Emphasis is given
on reducing the size of monodisperse droplets and increas-
ing feed-handling capacity while using MDGs as atomizers.
The technology of monodisperse droplet generation was
first developed to improve the resolution in ink-jet applica-
tions such as ink-jet printers and ink-jet recorders.[14]
Theoretical research commenced more than one century
ago, although in the last three decades the application of
micron-sized monodisperse droplets has extended to a
broad and increasing range, such as chemical deposition,[15]
microcapsules production,[16] DNA arraying,[17] polymer
electronics manufacture, controllable drug release, and
industrial printing.[18,19] The MDG is the key component
for generating monodisperse micron-sized droplets. An
attractive characteristic of MDGs is their ability to pro-
duce a single stream of droplets or a monodisperse spray
while keeping control of the droplet trajectory. Line dis-
pensing of droplets is possible and commonly used in office
ink-jet printers. The concept of line dispensing was found
to be very useful for production of uniform lactose parti-
cles using the single stream drying approach developed
by Patel and Chen.[1–3] Another attractive feature of
MDGs is that they can be easily grouped in one mechanical
assembly to use them for bulk production of droplets; for
instance, ink-jet cartridges and multiple-nozzles arrays.
If the monodisperse droplets can be generated for spray
drying, particles can be manufactured with a narrow size
distribution. In addition, uniform size and simple trajec-
tory can make the droplet drying process more analyzable
and controllable and reduce the interparticle and particle-
wall collisions that result in wall deposition, corrosion, pro-
duct loss, and energy wastage. If the flow pattern of the hot
gaseous medium could be also practically simplified for
individual droplets, production of same characteristic
particles would be expected. To fully take advantage of
the MDG, the feed-handling capacity must be extensively
enhanced. Although there are still some concerns with
the advancement for drying of monodisperse sprays, the
application of MDG has a great potential to improve the
controllability of the droplet drying process and dramati-
cally promote the overall quality of the spray-dried
product. It is expected that the MDGs combined with
spray-drying technology will provide an alternative to
practical-scale productions with feed-handling capacities
of at least 1 L per hour.
This research article is intended to review the governing
theory of droplet formation and existing methods of pro-
ducing monodisperse droplets. Several commercial MDGs
being utilized in various fields are also discussed for two
criteria: reducing the size of monodisperse droplets and
enhancing the feed-handling capacity of MDGs. The dry-
ing-relevant issues are also discussed with respect to the
disintegration of a liquid jet into individual droplets, stab-
ility of droplets during drying, and other limitations of
the technique with the view of developing a combined
monodisperse droplet generation technique and spray-
drying technology.
 MONODISPERSE DROPLET GENERATORS AS POTENTIAL ATOMIZERS 1909

PRINCIPLES OF DROPLETS GENERATION
Droplets are formed when the balance of forces on a liquid
jet breaks. There are normally two groups of forces influen-
cing the process of droplet formation; the first group belongs
to motive forces (i.e., gravitational force, inertial force,
electrostatic force, mechanical force, and aerodynamic force)
and another group is for drag forces (i.e., surface tension
force and viscous force). For different systems, the types of
forces involved can be varied to facilitate droplet formation.
However, four kinds of forces, which are gravitational force,
inertial force, surface tension force, and viscous force, always
exist. To analyze the force balance on the droplets during
monodisperse droplet generation, certain dimensionless
numbers are used, which are presented in Table 1.
For the simplest case, which refers to the state of ‘‘drip-
ping,’’ the gravity force and the surface tension force on the
droplet have to reach the equilibrium state for disinte-
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where Bo and Bo0 are Bond number based on the inside
and outside diameter of the nozzle at the orifice, respec-
tively, and K is constant (which is 0.37 for the case of a
water jet issuing in stagnant air). Both gravity and inertia
effects are included by introducing the Bond number into
the equation, which was shown to be in good agreement
with experimental results.
For a continuous breakup of a non-viscous liquid jet
with adequate surface tension and low relative velocity,
Rayleigh[21] obtained the following:
d ¼ 1:89d0 ð3Þ
This means that the average droplet diameter d is roughly
twice the liquid jet diameter d0, which may be considered as
equivalent to the orifice diameter. If the disturbance to the
jet is amplified by additional influences, such as electrical
force or mechanical force, the droplet size may be reduced.

gration of the liquid jet into individual droplets. In a math-

ematical form, this process can be described as: The Rayleigh theory represents the upper bound of actual

 size of droplets broken up from a liquid jet. This has been
p 3  6d0 r 1=3 widely accepted in subsequent developments to be a first
q
g d ¼ p
d0 r ) d ¼ ð1Þ
6 qg approximation for developing mathematical theories to
illustrate the droplet disintegration mechanism for many
Apparently, the dripping mechanism is concerned with
droplet generators including some current commercial ones
large droplets and relatively low velocity conditions. When
(Inotech, Inc., Switzerland).
a liquid jet issues from a nozzle, the equilibrium between
To take the viscosity of the liquid into account, a more
the surface tension and gravity cannot be maintained,
generalized Weber theory can be used for low-velocity
and thus the dripping state gives way to a jetting state. This
laminar jet breakup scenarios. The Weber theory was orig-
transition is described by the Weber number. By extending
inally extended from the Rayleigh theory. The optimum
a Taylor’s model, Clanet and Lasheras[20] obtained a criti-
disturbing wavelength (kop) and the average droplet diam-
cal value for Weber number at which the transition from
eter based on the consideration of surface energy to break
the dripping state to the jetting state occurs:
up the jet into droplets were described as:

 1=2 
Bo0

Wec ¼ 4 1 þ KBo0 Bo  ð1 þ KBo0 BoÞ2 1 pffiffiffi 3l
Bo kop ¼ 2p 1 þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð4Þ
qrd0
ð2Þ
 1=3
TABLE 1 d ¼ 1:5kop d02 ð5Þ
Dimensionless number governing the process of droplets
generation, where q is the density; r0 is the characteristic When the viscosity and=or velocity of a liquid jet are
length, l is the viscosity of the fluid, v is the characteristic further increased, the governing mechanism of jet breakup
velocity, and r is the coefficient of surface tension of the can be classified into four primary regimes—Rayleigh jet
fluid breakup zone, first wind-induced breakup zone, second
wind-induced breakup zone, and atomization zone. This
Bond number qgr20 Gravity=surface classification, schematically shown in Fig. 1, is based on
(Bo) r tension force the relative importance of forces involved in the system,
lv such as viscous force, surface tension force, inertial force,
Capillary number (Ca) Viscous force=surface aerodynamic force, etc.[22] A combination of Ohnesorge
r
tension force number and Reynolds number is the most commonly
qgrv
Reynolds number (Re) Inertial force=viscous accepted criterion of this classification for the steady ejec-
l
force
qr0 v2 tion of a liquid jet through a single, circular orifice into
Weber number (We) Inertial force=surface the quiescent air. Reis et al.[23] studied the piezoelectric sin-
r
tension force gle-nozzle droplet generator and concluded that the nor-
l
Ohnesorge number (Oh) Viscous force=surface malized drop volume ejected was shown to be a function
ðqr0 rÞ1=2 tension force of the Ohnesorge number at the orifice.
 1910 WU ET AL.
FIG. 1. Four different breakup regimes (Rayleigh jet breakup zone, first
wind-induced breakup zone, second wind-induced breakup zone, and
atomization zone) governed by different droplets breakup mechanisms.[22]
With the higher velocity of the liquid jet, the effect of
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aerodynamic forces becomes increasingly important, while
the relative influence of surface tension force is lessened.
The breakup of droplets from the jet may become unstable
leading to formation of droplets of smaller and polydistrib-
uted size. To get monodisperse droplets, the liquid para-
meters such as density, viscosity, and surface tension of
the liquid and the velocity of the liquid jet that make up
of Reynolds number and Ohnesorge number must be con-
trolled within the Rayleigh jet breakup zone.
The size of droplets generated by MDG can be theoreti-
cally predicted and can be reduced by introducing distur-
bances during the droplet generation process. Both
Ohnesorge number and Reynolds number of droplets,
however, should be limited to a certain range to obtain
droplets of uniform size, although this may come at the
expense of the production capacity. For a single nozzle
producing uniform monodisperse droplets, the capacity is
limited by the small volume and velocity of droplets. More
detailed theories on disintegration of a liquid jet for droplet
generation can be obtained from Goedde and Yuen,[24]
Eggers,[25,26] and Lin and Reitz.[27]
METHODS OF DROPLET GENERATION
Based on some knowledge discussed above, the recently
developed droplet producing methods aim to generate dro-
plets to be as small, monodisperse, reproducible, and con-
trollable as possible. Reducing the size of monodisperse
droplets and enhancing the production rate are the main
issues for the application of MDG to spray-drying tech-
nology and will be discussed here. To ensure convenient
and clear discussion, in the part of reducing droplet size,
the existing droplet formation methods were classified,
from the theoretical models to the practical technologies,
based on various mechanisms and corresponding forces
involved in the droplet formation process. As far as
the feed-handling capacity is concerned, application of a
multiple-nozzle plate and controlling liquid jet parameters
can be promising tools.
Size Reduction of Monodisperse Droplets
For achieving the droplets of smaller size, the most
direct way is to decrease the orifice diameter of the nozzle.
However, this concept is limited by the higher costs and the
increased risk of clogging during operation. Another
option is applying more frequent disturbances to the liquid
jet, which is limited by the higher power consumption.
Keeping the Ohnesorge number and Reynolds number
within the Rayleigh jet breakup zone is a key idea to facili-
tate reduction in the droplet size while maintaining mono-
dispersity. Physical properties of the liquid to be jetted
become important here to keep the Ohnesorge number
and Reynolds number within the Rayleigh jet breakup
zone.
Hydrodynamic Droplet Generator (HDG)
Gravitational force and inertial force serve as driving
forces in this kind of droplet generator. The critical Weber
number (Wec) determines whether the state of liquid is
dripping or jetting types. Under the small We, the fluid
dynamics are in a dripping regime. Droplets grow to a size
at which the gravitational force overcomes surface tension
and viscous forces. Ejection of a single droplet with a drip-
ping state is schematically shown in Fig. 2a. The dripping
mechanism relies on the gravitational force as the main
driving force; thus, the diameter of droplets ejected is
tended to be much larger than that of the nozzle. With
We rising, the state of jetting replaces dripping, which is
illustrated in Fig. 2b and Fig. 2c.[28] Accordingly, the effect
of gravitational force as driving force partially gives way to
the effect of inertial force; thus, droplets can be ejected
before the size grows as big as in the dripping state. The
HDG with the droplet generation driven only by the gravi-
tational force and the inertial force as motive forces is not
able to stably form fine droplets with uniform size.
FIG. 2. Different states of jet perturbation with different Weber
numbers. (a) We ¼ 0.063, (b) We ¼ 1.73, and (c) We ¼ 2.3.[28]
 MONODISPERSE DROPLET GENERATORS AS POTENTIAL ATOMIZERS
Hence, more disturbances should be involved during the
process of droplets generation.
Electro-Hydrodynamic Droplet Generator (EHDG)
The electro-hydrodynamic droplet generator (EHDG)
uses electrostatic force in addition to gravitational force
and inertial force to accomplish droplet generation. When
electrostatic and surface tension forces balance each other,
the meniscus becomes conical, forming a Taylor cone. The
apex of the cone ejects a thin jet, which subsequently
breaks up into droplets with the size approximately close
to the jet size. The concept is schematically illustrated in
Fig. 3. The droplets are smaller than the orifice diameter
and have a narrow size distribution. The EHDG with a
single nozzle was recently expanded to incorporate multiple
jets in the system for achieving higher production
capacity.[19,29] However, the specific requirements for
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liquid properties, the extreme complexity of electrostatic
field arrangement applied in multiple jets EHDGs, and
the relatively high cost to generate uniform droplets may
hamper the industrial application of EHDGs.
Mechano-Hydrodynamic Droplet Generator (MHDG)
The mechano-hydrodynamic droplet generator (MHDG)
introduces additional mechanical force to the liquid jet to
influence droplet breakup. This section will discuss two
such resources of mechanical forces: shear force applied
by another fluid and vibration force generated by piezo-
electric materials transducer (PZT).
There are a few droplet generation methods currently
being investigated in laboratory that use shear force to
facilitate disintegration of droplets from the bulk fluid
or the liquid jet. Three such methods are depicted in
Fig. 4.[30–32] Figure 4a depicts the droplet generator having
FIG. 3. A schematic diagram of a multiple jets EHDG. (a) A sectional view and (b) a full view. The homogenizer between the feed tube and nozzles
was placed to control the velocity of the bulk liquid to each nozzle.[19,29]
1911
a three-microchannel junction. The microchannels can be
machined on a silicon plate using a dry etching process.
Xu and Nakajima[31] fabricated such a nozzle with inlet
channels having 100 mm in width, which was tapered down
to 50 mm near the junction of the three inlet channels. The
simplified version of the three-microchannel junction
geometry is a T-junction microfluidic device (TMD), which
is another droplet generator that uses the shear force. The
TMD can be fabricated on polymer plate such as a poly-
methyl methacrylate (PMMA) plate by using an end
mill.[32] The channel for disperse and continuous phases
can be of different diameters. A typical T-junction arrange-
ment is schematically shown in Fig. 4b. Another device
where the shear force is used to produce a droplet is a
straight-through microchannel (SMC), which is schemati-
cally illustrated in Fig. 4c. This device can be fabricated
by deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) of the microelectro-
mechanical system (MEMS).[30] They are mainly utilized
as emulsification devices by permitting different liquids to
flow in a continuous phase channel and a dispersed phase
channel. The gas, such as air, can be replaced a disperse
phase fluid in order to produce hollow droplets (bubbles)
or particles. The flow rates of liquid in continuous phase
and dispersed phase play a determinant role in TMD
and SMC. It was shown that monodisperse droplets of
9–16 mm could be formed by controlling the flow rate of
both continuous and disperse phase fluids.[30–32]
The size of monodisperse droplets formed by TMD and
SMC could be 2–3 times bigger than that of the outlet
channel. To reduce the droplet size further, Link et al.[33]
successfully developed a sequential T-junction microfluidic
device (sTMD), schematically shown in Fig. 5, which could
passively break up the liquid into small droplets with the
size comparable to the outlet channel width without
 1912
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FIG. 4. MHDGs with shear force as driving force to form droplets. (a) Three-microchannel junction droplet generator.[31] (b) T-junction microfluidic
device (TMD).[32] (c) Straight-through microchannel (SMC).[30]
changing the volume fraction of the dispersed phase. The
potential coalescence phenomena among emulsion dro-
plets, however, need to be addressed for the drying
purpose.
PZT-driven MHDGs have been widely utilized in ink-jet
printing applications. There are two primary methods to
run these kinds of droplet generators, continuous mode
and drop-on-demand (DOD) mode. Both operating modes
can produce fine and monodisperse droplets using mechan-
ical disturbances originated by a voltage-induced PZT.
With the continuous mode, it is possible to run the
FIG. 5. Sequential T-junction microfluidic device (sTMD) where
droplets of the size comparable with the size of outlet channels are formed
by passive breakup.[33]
WU ET AL.
generator at a speed of 100 KHz, but at the cost of higher
power consumption. The droplet diameter can be as big
as twice the orifice diameter. On the other hand, DOD
droplet generators are able to efficiently eject droplets
with a frequency up to 2 KHz. Droplet generators in a
DOD mode produce a single droplet for each voltage
pulse. Droplets can be formed with sizes comparable to
the orifice size by controlling the waveform pattern used
to excite PZT. Formation of satellite droplet can be
avoided by adjusting the pulse characteristics such as
pulse amplitude, width, rise=fall times, and frequency. A
comprehensive review of PZT-driven devices was done
by Le.[14] As far as the spray-drying technology is con-
cerned, a selection between a continuous mode and a
DOD mode can be made based on the required pro-
ductivity and the final size of the particles to be achieved.
The droplet generator with a continuous mode is prefer-
able over a DOD model for drying operations where
the higher productivity is more important compared to
the smallness of the particle.
Based on the principle of the continuous mode droplet
generation, Inotech, Inc., Switzerland, has developed an
encapsulator system using a single or multiple nozzle that
allowed two different fluids to pass through a concentric
nozzle. This kind of nozzle can process high viscous liquids
(max. 300 mPa
s for 0.5-mm orifice diameter nozzle). A
typical setup of the encapsulator system is shown in
Fig. 6. This encapsulator with a single nozzle of 195-mm
diameter has been successfully utilized to capture highly
concentrated cell suspensions in 250-mm hydrogel with
a viscosity of 240 mPa
s and a production rate of
 MONODISPERSE DROPLET GENERATORS AS POTENTIAL ATOMIZERS
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FIG. 6. A schematic diagram of the encapsulator designed by Inotech, Inc.
36 mL=h.[34] This system can readily be tested to serve as an
atomizer in spray dryers.
MDGs operating with a DOD mode have better con-
trollability on droplet generation frequency and droplet
size and are also readily available in the market. MicroFab
Technologies, Inc. (Plano, TX) has fabricated a range of
droplet generators that can be operated with a DOD mode
to eject fluids of different characteristics and temperatures.
The low productivity and high operating costs limit their
use to the lab-scale applications.
The use of a laser-drilled hole as an orifice to form
droplets has recently attracted more attention with the cur-
rent development of laser technology. Similar to the glass
capillary or the nozzle, the laser-drilled hole on a steel sub-
strate can generate small droplets with the size comparable
to the orifice size. The fluid ejection and disintegration of
droplets from the orifice can be facilitated by a piezoelectri-
cally driven actuator and an appropriate feed pressure con-
troller. Alternatively, a silicon nozzle fabricated by DRIE
is assembled as a microfluidic dispenser by SpectraTM,
Inc. (USA). This kind of generator can produce droplets
with as small volume as 1 pL (< 10 mm in diameter) from
a 21.5-mm orifice diameter.
As previously mentioned, reducing the nozzle size to get
smaller droplets is not always practical. A waveform
pattern, which is the core technology of these various
PZT driven MDGs, can also control the droplet size down
for a given nozzle of size ranging from 20 to 200 mm. Chen
and Basaran[35] proposed a new pattern of waveform,
called waveform-3, which enabled a reduction in droplet
radius by more than a factor of 2 compared to the droplet
size generated through the same orifice with a PZT
activated by traditional waveform-1 and waveform-2.
1913
In general, MDGs with both continuous and DOD modes
can theoretically form fine and monodisperse droplets for
spray drying, but practical applications cannot be realized
until the yield of droplets is greatly enhanced.
Feed-Handling Capacity Enhancement for MDGs
For a single nozzle, the parameters of liquid phase must
be kept within the Rayleigh jet breakup zone or first wind-
induced breakup zone to obtain stable monodisperse dro-
plets. This puts constrains on allowable flow rate and limits
the capacity of a single nozzle. To achieve higher through-
puts from MDGs, the number of nozzles in the system
must be dramatically increased. To create multiple jet
monodisperse droplet generators, both the manufacturing
aspects and the control of liquid jet parameters should be
considered.
Manufacturing of the Multiple-Nozzle Plate
The use of a multiple-nozzle plate permits multiple
streams of monodisperse droplets to be generated simul-
taneously. For the successful operation, one has to ensure
that every nozzle in the system is as identically manufac-
tured as possible. The size error distribution of nozzles
manufactured using different methods was investigated
by SpectraTM, Inc. Compared to laser drilling methods,
DRIE fabricated silicon nozzles (150 M-Class Jet Modules,
SpectraTM, Inc., USA) had smaller errors regarding their
orifice size.
After considering the individual nozzles, the whole
arrangement of nozzles within one nozzle plate is another
issue. The geometrical arrangement of nozzles on the plate
is also very important for the stability of liquid jets and
droplets in the chamber. Nozzles can be placed in a circular
plate using a square pattern, concentric circles, or concen-
tric polygons. Fabrication of such a mechanical assembly
with a few hundred individual devices may be very complex
and expensive. Brenn[36] designed a laser-drilled orifice
plate with 62 holes in a common piezoceramic block to
form multiple streams of monodisperse droplets with the
flow rate up to 13.8 L=h. It was proposed that the mutual
distance between two orifices be at least 3 times the nozzle
diameter to prevent coalescence among neighbor parallel
streams. Patel and Chen[1–3] proposed a design of a mul-
tiple-orifice plate with either laser-drilled holes or individ-
ual PZT-driven MDGs using a triangular arrangement
on a circle plate in context to drying operations. Each hole
or nozzle was surrounded by an air-dispensing hole
through which the hot air could be blown in a cocurrent
fashion, as shown in Fig. 7a. In the current market,
SpectraTM, Inc., has developed M-class print-head modules
with a die consisting of 304 addressable jets individually
powered by a PZT, as shown in Fig. 7b. Many arrange-
ments are possible depending on the type of the droplet
generation and the specific requirement.
 1914
FIG. 7. Two designs of a multiple-nozzles plate for generating monodisperse sprays. (a) A circle multiple-nozzles plate with a triangular arrange-
ment.[1] (b) M-class print-head module with a die consisting of 304 addressable jets individually powered by a PZT (SpectraTM, Inc.).
Controlling Liquid Jets
During formation of monodisperse droplets using a
Downloaded by [University of Guelph] at 07:53 21 April 2013
multiple-nozzle plate, the most important parameters to
be controlled are the ejecting velocity and disturbing
frequency of the liquid jet, which have a crucial impact
on the final droplet size and the size distribution. The jet
velocity and disturbing frequency for all the nozzles should
be kept identical. A homogenizer consisting of baffles,
beads, frits, or other obstructions can be set between the
fluid feed reservoir and the inlet of nozzles to balance the
pressure on the liquid for all the nozzles, thus keeping their
velocities as identical as possible (see Fig. 3a).[29] The scale-
up process can be more easily realized for PZT-driven
MDGs. Multiple dispensers with one PZT for each nozzle
can be assembled in a group and controlled individually.
The multiple streams generator, similar to the M-class
print-head modules designed by SpectraTM, Inc., is cur-
rently being utilized in the research fields of chemical
deposition and biomaterials printing. As multiple jets are
simultaneously generated through individual nozzles,
coalescing phenomena between droplets of mutual streams
or the same stream must be prevented. The droplet trajec-
tory and the distance between two droplet streams, as well
as between two neighbor droplets within the same stream,
should be well controlled, especially if the stream of
droplets is traveling down into a chamber of moving gas.
DISCUSSION
Production of uniform particles in micron- and even
nanosize is targeted by a wide range of practical fields,
including spray drying. The throughput of current spray
dryers can be over 20 tons per hour, although poor con-
trollability over the particle size distribution and several
associated problems restrict their application for manufac-
turing of specialized products. The main reason for the
large particle size distribution is the poor performance of
atomizers that generate polydisperse sprays from the bulk
WU ET AL.
liquid. The gas turbulence along with polydisperse droplets
inside the drying chamber can lead to undesirable agglom-
eration, wall deposition, product loss, and energy wastage
and can result in extreme complexity for analyzing and
controlling the drying process. For minimizing these pro-
blems with the existing spray-drying technology, the mono-
disperse droplet generators can be a useful tool to produce
monodisperse sprays of uniform droplets. However, the
current scale of production is likely to be sacrificed due
to the very small feed-handling capacity of the MDGs.
The single-droplet generators are currently able to produce
a few milligrams of powder per hour. The throughput for
MDGs may be elevated by using multiple MDGs in a sin-
gle assembly or multiple MDGs working parallel in an
individual assembly. It is common to group several hun-
dred ink-jet devices in a single mechanical-hydraulic plate
to produce multiple streams of uniform droplets for print-
ing applications. If an effective multiple-nozzle design is
constructed for the purpose of drying, then production
capacities up to a few kilograms of powder per hour may
be achieved.
In the laboratory, drying of monodisperse droplets may
allow measurement of several droplet characteristics (e.g.,
droplet size, size distribution, and trajectory) during pro-
cessing.[1–3] This feature makes the drying process more
analyzable for developing a suitable drying kinetics model
and also for scale-up or scale-down purposes. In addition,
it is expected that the process optimization would be rela-
tively easy with drying of monodisperse spray compared
to the traditional spray-drying process due to the higher
reproducibility advantage with drying of monodisperse
droplets. Application of MDGs as atomizers for spray dry-
ing operations may also offer several advantages from pro-
cess control to product quality, in particular, desirable
spherical particles, negligible particle size distribution,
and better predictions of process parameters and energy
requirements. Furthermore, the final product is expected
to be more efficiently collectable from the cyclones due
to uniform characteristics of the dried particles.
 MONODISPERSE DROPLET GENERATORS AS POTENTIAL ATOMIZERS
Some theoretical and practical aspects of existing
MDGs that may potentially be utilized as atomizers for
spray-drying technology were reviewed here. According
to the governing theory on droplets formation, it was noted
that the controlled frequency and the amplitude of disturb-
ance on a liquid jet can reduce the droplet size for the
nozzle of a given orifice size. Monosized droplets generated
from a single MDG can be realized at the expense of pro-
duction rate owing to the fine volume and the small droplet
formation rate. The mechano-hydrodynamic droplet gen-
erators (MHDGs) were found to be the most suitable
compared to HDGs and EHDGs to generate small and
uniform droplets for spray-drying technique. The method
of generating a monodisperse spray has been extensively
used for various printing technologies and is rapidly being
utilized for many other applications. The Biotechnology
and Food Engineering Group at Monash University,
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Australia, seemed to be the first to propose the application
of PZT-driven MHDGs to spray dryers and have success-
fully obtained spherical and uniformly sized lactose parti-
cles using a newly developed lab-scale ink-jet spray dryer
(IJSD).[1–3] The IJSD using multiple streams of droplets
is under development within the same group to achieve a
larger throughput.
The success of this technology relies on the consistent
performance of the MDGs and the behavior of monodis-
perse sprays in the drying chamber. There are certain con-
cerns with applying the method of monodisperse droplet
generation to the spray-drying technology. The commonly
encountered problem was the blockage of the nozzle during
operation, especially for MDGs of small orifice diameters
and for liquids having suspended particles of diameter
greater than the critical diameter, which is generally 5%
of the orifice diameter.[37] The blockage problem may be
more severe under drying conditions due to drying out of
the liquid at the orifice. However, it may be overcome by
filtering the concentrated feed and offering a flow of low-
temperature air around the nozzle tip.
It is essential to ensure the stability of monodisperse
droplets inside the drying chamber for production of uni-
form particles using MDGs. The stability of monodisperse
droplets is affected by various atomization, drying, proces-
sing, and design parameters such as feed pressure, feed
properties (viscosity and surface tension), pulse characteris-
tics for driving PZT actuators, location of the device in the
drying chamber, position of the device with respect to the
air distribution plate, location of the air dispersing holes,
air droplets contacting methods, air flow patterns inside
the chamber, air properties and flow rates, geometry of
the drying chamber, and position of the fluid-bed dryer
(if any). Care must be taken to control the drop trajectory
inside the chamber for avoiding interparticle and particle-
wall collisions.[38] One way to avoid collisions is to guaran-
tee that particles are dried up to a safe moisture content
1915
level before gaining random trajectories. Charging of
particles could be another option to avoid collisions; how-
ever, this would introduce some complexity and extra costs.
SUMMARY
In this review article, we have presented a need for pro-
ducing spherical and identical particles and some MDGs
that can be applied as ‘‘smart’’ atomizers to the spray-
drying technique. An attractive feature of these droplet
generators is the ability to produce spherical droplets with
a negligible size distribution and a controlled drop trajec-
tory. MDGs as atomizers, if incorporated to the drying
chamber, uniform, spherical, and reproducible particles or
microcapsules of diverse morphology and microstructure
may be generated. In particular, MDGs, especially PZT-
driven MHDGs, seemed to have high potentials to serve as
atomizers in spray dryers at a reasonable production
capacity. Furthermore, the drying can be facilitated by incor-
porating only a small volume dryer because the drying time
would be very small for droplets with the size in the order of
a few microns. The use of these atomizers may be limited at
this stage to the lab-scale only due to the very small pro-
ductivity. There is a large scope of work that needs to be
carried out to look at the detailed hardware and software
aspects of the whole idea and the related lab=pilot-scale
setups. A detailed research work is under progress
within the same research group at Monash University,
Australia.
NOMENCLATURE
Bo Bond number (based on the inner diameter of the
orifice)
Bo0 Bond number (based on the outer diameter of the
orifice)
Ca Capillary number
d Average diameter of droplets (m)
d0 Diameter of the liquid jet (m)
g Gravitational constant (9.8 m=s2)
Oh Ohnesorge number
Re Reynolds number
r0 Characteristic length (m)
v Velocity of the liquid jet (m=s)
We Weber number
Wec Critical Weber number
Greek Symbols
kop Optimum disturbing wavelength (m)
l Viscosity of the liquid (mPa
s)
q Density of the liquid (kg=m3)
r Surface tension coefficient of the liquid (N
m 1)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This is to acknowledge that the work is mainly sup-
ported by ARC Discovery Grant DP0773688. The first
 1916 WU ET AL.
author is also supported by an International Studentship
funded by Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash
University.
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