Patent ID: 7322124

Claim:
Spray-drying device ( 1 ), comprising a vertical drying chamber ( 2 ) which comprises: a tubular material feed ( 3 ) which supplies material which is spray-dried, an atomization means ( 4 ) on the free end of the tubular material feed which atomizes the material which is to be spray-dried, a tubular drying-gas feed ( 6 ) which supplies drying gas, wherein an outlet end of the tubular material feed ( 3 ) is partially coaxially located within an outlet end of the tubular drying-gas feed ( 6 ) at a point where both the outlet end of the tubular material feed and the tubular drying-gas feed are coaxially located on the longitudinal axis at a top of the drying chamber; wherein an outlet opening of the atomization means is provided below an outlet opening of the tubular drying-gas feed to facilitate the atomization of the material; a drying-gas discharge ( 8 ) at a bottom end of the drying chamber that discharges drying gas, a material discharge ( 9 ) at the bottom end of the drying chamber that discharges spray-dried material, filter means ( 11 ) enclosed around a periphery of the drying chamber that separate only entrained fine particles out of discharged drying gas, fine-particle removal means ( 12 ) that removes fine particles which have been deposited on the filter means ( 11 ), and a fine-particle collection means ( 10 ) for collecting the fine particles which have been removed from the filter means ( 11 ) by the fine-particle removal means ( 12 ), the collected fine particles and the spray-dried material being separate products which are separately discharged.