GEA Steamfusion Nozzle

How does it work?

Steam is applied to the product directly as it passes through the GEA Steamfusion Nozzle. The product is heated instantly in the steam before being sprayed into the hot air of the spray drying chamber, where the droplets are dried to particles.

Nozzle for functional food ingredients 

The specific conditions within the GEA Steamfusion Nozzle can all be adjusted. This level of fine tuning lets you create products with desired structural or functional properties. This can include carrying out starch gelatinization, creating proteins with specific properties, or manufacturing specific high-density products. The high temperature steam also reduces microbial load effectively, as the product is kept at high temperature for a very short time. 

Features and benefits of steam treatment using the GEA Steamfusion Nozzle:

• Instantaneous steam treatment of feed within the spray drying nozzle
• Feed flow and pressure are easily set for each product
• Quick change in and out of the NAD nozzle system
• Short residence time in the nozzle
• Immediate drying of steam-treated feed upon atomization in the spray dryer chamber
• Hygienic, user-friendly nozzle design
• Compatible with 24/7 operation, dependent on product
• Smooth, automated switching between feed lines results in increased dryer capacity and up time.

Focused on your production needs

The Steamfusion Nozzle lance can be switched in and out of the NAD nozzle system quickly and easily, for speedy changeover and minimal downtime. The nozzle is also designed to handle conditions of high feed viscosity that can result from these high heat conditions.

We always listen to our customers’ challenges and expectations so that we can develop and deliver hardware components and complete plants, digital tools and automation systems that make spray drying technology more flexible, productive and user friendly. When designing the Steamfusion Nozzle we kept a focus on helping to reduce issues such as nozzle blockages and deposits from nozzle spitting, and feed line fouling.

We’ve dedicated decades of spray drying knowhow and expertise into developing modular, flexible technologies and end-to-end lines that give you the freedom to create high quality powders with precisely defined properties. We also want you to be as confident as we are that our systems will give you great performance and deliver the results you expect. 

Testing with the nozzle

At our spray dryer centre of excellence in Soeborg, Denmark, you can see the GEA Steamfusion Nozzle in action. Whether you are an existing GEA customer or are new to the FSD® and TFD spray dryers and associated equipment, we can walk you through it all, and demonstrate our components and equipment as part of a complete spray drying setup at pilot scale, along with upstream and downstream equipment.

Together we can evaluate and optimize dryer configurations for different product types and applications, and we may even be able to test the spray drying system with your product. Be assured we’ll always give you straight, honest advice and support, so that you can be confident of a final spray dryer configuration that will match your process- and product-related needs and expectations, and that will also fit in with your existing or new site layout.