Drying of biotechnological materials: Spray-freeze drying

Production of dried powder forms of biotechnological materials which are generally in liquid form when they are produced is advantageous in terms of both protecting their stability for a long time and reducing storage and transportation costs. However, during drying of these materials, some undesired changes might occur such as loss of cell viability, biological activity and nutritional value. Spray drying and freeze drying with their unique advantages and disadvantages are the most commonly used methods for drying of biotechnological materials. In spray drying, degradation of heat-labile materials can take place because of the high inlet temperatures. Freeze drying has high operation costs because of being carried out at low temperature and low pressure for a long time. Spray-freeze drying (SFD) is a novel drying method which combines conventional freeze and spray drying by eliminating the disadvantages of both methods. In SFD process, the liquid feed solution is first sprayed into small droplets. These droplets are frozen by contacting with a cryogenic medium and dried by sublimation at low temperature and pressure. Reduction of the particle size by spraying process reduces the operation costs by shortening the freezing and drying time. Moreover, the SFD process results in smaller particle size, higher specific surface area and porous structured particles than conventional freeze drying and spray drying. In this study, principles, advantages and application areas of SFD process, which is a novel drying method, will be emphasized and the studies in the literature will be reviewed.