The company will present its process, technology and plant engineering expertise for the production of functional powders, granules and pellets at the trade fair (29–30 March 2023) on booth H04-5.
As a leader in fluid bed technology and powder synthesis with its own Technology Center in Weimar, Germany, Glatt will highlight integrated concepts in the areas of particle design, process know-how and plant engineering. Glatt experts will be happy to discuss a wide range of topics — from product idea to the industrial manufacture of products and ingredients — in the bulk solids processing industries.
To form particles with application-optimised properties from liquid or solid starting materials, integrated solutions are required. Those offered by Glatt using fluid bed and spouted bed technologies, as well as powder synthesis, are perfect examples. Targeted combinations of shaping and thermal treatment enable the production of both homogeneous and coated nano and micro powders, as well as dust-free easy flowing granulates or pellets. Benefiting from tailor-made particle properties, these are used in numerous high-performance materials, such as catalysts or innovative medical ceramics. Other areas of application include the activation and coating of new types of battery materials.
Double encapsulation, better solubility
Glatt has shown how it’s possible to improve both the bioavailability and the water solubility of plant-based functional ingredients in a flexible two-step encapsulation process using poorly soluble plant extracts such as curcumin. In the first step, microparticles are produced with no thermal stress. By combining a biodegradable protein-based shell with a small particle size, the final product is very bioavailable. After encapsulation, the curcumin extract dissolves much more easily in water. The solution is transparent, homogeneous and stable. In the following drying step, the microcapsule dispersion is converted into stable particles with a narrow size distribution, which are compact, dust-free, free-flowing and readily soluble in water. The process can be adapted in many ways.
More than just drying: integrated particle design
Offering targeted solutions for a broad array of material systems, applications and industries, fluid bed spray granulation elevates the basic concept of spray drying to a whole new level. Compared with a spray dried product, for example, the properties of those made using a fluidised bed can be customised to meet specific requirements. Depending on the operational parameters and the technical configuration of the plant, particle shape, structure and size can be precisely defined with a significant amount of flexibility.
At SOLIDS Dortmund, Glatt will show how particle properties can be influenced to improve the functionality of bulk materials. Glatt supports its customers from product idea to the production of functional powders, granules and pellets. Throughout the process, customers benefit from access to innovative technologies, very short development times for specific particle properties and smooth scale-up based on laboratory and pilot tests in the company’s own Technology Center in Weimar.
