Fueled by the steady implementation of the Healthy China 2030 Strategy and consumption upgrading, the big health industry is witnessing tremendous growth opportunities. As a core segment of the big health sector, functional food has become the key driver for transformation and upgrading within the food manufacturing industry.
Oligosaccharides, a mainstream type of prebiotics widely popular in functional foods, deliver multiple physiological benefits: regulating intestinal flora, boosting immunity, low calorific value and anti-cavity properties. They are rapidly applied in dairy products, beverages, baked goods, health care products, pharmaceuticals and many other fields, accompanied by continuously rising market demand.
However, as the market sets higher standards for oligosaccharide product quality, traditional spray drying processes are confronted with prominent challenges. Especially when converting oligosaccharide syrup into high-purity, high-flowability powder, conventional equipment suffers from multiple technical bottlenecks that greatly limit improvements in product quality and production efficiency.
Three Core Pain Points of Traditional Equipment for Oligosaccharide Spray Drying
-
Heavy wall adhesion due to high-viscosity oligosaccharide syrup
Oligosaccharides feature complex molecular structures, so atomized syrup droplets remain highly adhesive. If the drying system is poorly designed, droplets will stick to the inner wall of the drying tower, causing material loss, difficult cleaning, and even halts in continuous production.
-
Inadequate drying and poor moisture control
Many existing devices adopt drying towers with insufficient effective volume or underpowered heating systems. Atomized droplets cannot be fully dried within limited residence time, resulting in finished powder with excessive moisture. This undermines the solubility and flowability of products, and may trigger caking, mildew and other quality hazards, severely impairing performance in downstream end products.
-
Defective structural design leading to severe powder buildup on tower walls
Problems including excessively large tower cone angles, unreasonable air outlet layout and uneven hot air distribution create turbulent airflow. Partially dried materials collide with and adhere to the tower wall ahead of schedule. Besides, unsatisfactory atomization or excessive spray distance causes droplets to hit the tower wall before full drying, forming wet powder agglomerates and lowering product yield and purity.
More critically, residual powder left uncleaned will carbonize in high-temperature areas such as the tower top and generate black spots, which directly contaminate finished products and damage product appearance and food safety.
To tackle these common industry-wide hurdles, Longxin Drying relies on technological innovation, conducts in-depth research on the material properties and drying mechanisms of oligosaccharides, and releases the new-generation YPG Pressure Spray Drying & Cooling Unit. Custom-designed for functional sugars, sugar alcohols and food additive manufacturers, this unit fully breaks through the technical bottlenecks of oligosaccharide spray drying.
Innovation as the Core of Progress: Technical Breakthroughs of Longxin Pressure Spray Dryers
Integrating high-efficiency drying, precision granulation, intelligent control and energy conservation, Longxin YPG Pressure Spray Dryer adopts six coordinated optimized core systems to reinvent advanced drying technologies for functional sugars.
-
Intelligent Feeding System Ensuring Stable Conveyance
Equipped with high-precision diaphragm pumps and an online viscosity monitoring device, the system enables stable high-pressure delivery of high-viscosity oligosaccharide syrup to the atomizer, eliminating pulsation and blockage to realize consistent and uninterrupted feeding.
-
Precision Atomization System Enabling Micron-Scale Droplet Control
Fitted with multi-channel pressure atomizers with adjustable nozzle diameters (0.5–3.0 mm) and atomization angles (60°–90°), the machine atomizes syrup into ultrafine droplets of 10–200 μm. Its specific surface area reaches 500–1500 ㎡/kg, greatly accelerating water evaporation and shortening drying time to 15–60 seconds, making it perfectly suitable for heat-sensitive materials.
-
Dynamic Drying System Optimizing Airflow and Thermal Field Distribution
The self-developed 3D three-dimensional hot air distributor delivers evenly distributed hot air with minimal wind speed deviation. Combined with a drying tower with optimized cone angle, the design eliminates airflow dead zones and avoids material wall adhesion. The tower body is fitted with an automatic air hammer/electric hammer knocking system and a cooling air ring at the lower cone to prevent burnt powder.
-
Multi-Stage Separation System Boosting Recovery Rate and Purity
A dual-stage powder collection setup consisting of cyclone separators and pulse back-blow bag dust collectors achieves a total material recovery rate of over 95%. The automatic pulse back-blow function clears powder accumulated on filter bags, preventing air volume drop caused by filter blockage and securing long-term stable system operation.
-
Modular Secondary Treatment Meeting Diversified Production Needs
Clients can optionally install a ZLG vibrating fluidized bed secondary drying system to further reduce powder moisture and improve flowability; or integrate a CIP clean-in-place system to realize automatic cleaning and sterilization, complying with strict hygiene and safety standards.
-
Intelligent Control System Realizing Full-Process Automation
Adopting Siemens PLC + touch screen control system, it monitors real-time key parameters including inlet/outlet air temperature, feed liquid pressure and tower negative pressure, and supports remote monitoring and data recording. Advanced PID control algorithms stabilize production processes, reduce manual intervention and guarantee consistent batch quality.
From Capable Drying to Premium Drying: Longxin Fuels the Upgrade of the Functional Sugar Industry
Centered on maximizing customer value, Longxin Drying provides full-lifecycle services targeting the drying demands of high-value products such as oligosaccharides and sugar alcohols, covering process design, pilot test verification and turnkey projects. We help customers achieve production goals of high yield, high purity, low energy consumption and low failure rate.
Against the backdrop of the booming big health industry, the functional sugar sector is shifting from extensive production to refined precision manufacturing. As a pioneer in spray drying technological innovation, Longxin Drying will keep focusing on the functional sugar drying sector, empower industrial upgrading with innovative technologies, assist customers in gaining an upper hand in fierce market competition, and jointly write a new chapter for high-quality development of functional sugars.
Longxin Spray Dryers — Every particle of functional sugar carries the weight of health!