Liquid Air Temperature Research Articles

Thermodynamic and economic analysis of multi-generation system based on LNG-LAES integrating with air separation unit

LNG consumption is rising globally, releasing significant cold energy during regasification. Coupling LNG vaporization with liquid air energy storage (LAES) maximizes this cold energy recovery, enhancing LAES efficiency. However, current LNG-LAES systems face issues like insufficient high-grade cold energy use and high liquid air temperatures. LAES's inability to recover LNG cold energy during energy release necessitates cold storage fluid, increasing costs. Safety concerns also arise from LNG and air coexisting in the same heat exchanger, and LNG vaporization fluctuations can destabilize LAES operations. This study proposes a multi-generation system (LNG-LAES-ASU) incorporating an air separation unit (ASU) to address these challenges. The ASU recovers LNG cold energy during energy release, adapts to LNG vaporization fluctuations, and reduces ASU energy consumption. Energy, economic, and peak-shaving performance analyses show the system achieves a 91.07 % round-trip efficiency (RTE). The ASU's average energy consumption is 0.1356–0.1506 kWh/Nm³ O₂, much lower than a standalone ASU's 0.4 kWh/Nm³ O₂. Over 30 years, the system yields a net present value (NPV) of $56,111,291 and a dynamic payback period of 3.23 years. Its peak-shaving capacity is 2.47–2.57 times greater than LNG-LAES alone. This research offers valuable insights into efficient LNG cold energy utilization.

The effect of insulation on boil-off gas in liquid air storage tank

Increasing renewable energy is posing a challenge to the stability of electricity grid, and the importance of an energy storage system (ESS) is becoming clearer. A Liquid Air Energy Storage System (LAES) is proposed as one of the promising ESS technologies. LAES converts electricity to liquid air efficiently and economically. However, since the storage temperature of liquid air is −196 °C, loss of liquid air is inevitable due to evaporation, i.e., boil-off gas (BOG). A loss of liquid air has negative effect on the round-trip efficiency of LAES; therefore, the BOG rate must be minimized. In this research, the insulation performance of liquid air tank is evaluated. To calculate the heat ingress and BOG rate, a partial equilibrium model is developed. The insulation performance is evaluated with varying insulation thickness, emissivity, aspect ratio and materials. The results show that the BOG rate of vacuum insulation can reach 1.8 %/day. For foam glass insulation, the BOG rate can become 2.25 %/day. With optimal geometry, 0.7 %/day for vacuum insulation and 1 %/day for foam glass insulation can be achieved. The vacuum insulation generally shows better insulation performance, however, there is area where the foam glass insulation shows better performance depending on the insulation thickness and emissivity.

Effects of the atomisation spray on heating transfer in evaporative condensers: A numerical study

Nowadays, due to the excellent performance of evaporative condenser, it has been widely applied in various industrial fields. Improving the heat transfer performance of evaporative condensers is of great importance to save water and energy. Spray features have a significant impact on the evaporative volume and efficiency of a heat-carrying agent (water) in an evaporative condenser, further dominating the condenser’s heat transfer performance. Therefore, it is important to improve the spray characteristics to enhance the heat transfer capacity of evaporative condensers. In this study, atomisation spray technology was introduced to an evaporative condensation system to optimise the spray process parameters. The objective is to elucidate the heat transfer capacity affected by the atomisation spray parameters, including spray density, spray distance, liquid particle size, air velocity, and air temperature. In addition, it is one of the aims of this paper to investigate the degree to which each parameter affects the heat transfer performance. This paper uses numerical simulations to investigate the relationship between the atomisation spray parameters and the heat transfer performance. A tube bundle model in an evaporative condenser was developed and Lagrangian method was used to treat the discrete phase. The results showed that a decrease in either liquid particle size or air temperature could improve the heat flux. In contrast, the heat flux exhibits a para-curve trend with an increase in any of the other three parameters. When other conditions are certain, the heat flux could reach up to 54.6 kW/m2 at an optimal atomisation spray density of 3.89 × 10−3 kg/(m·s). However, it could decrease by 53.23% with the increase in liquid particle size from 0.05 to 0.26 mm. What’s more, the atomisation spray density and liquid particle size are proven to be the two most critical factors; their grey relational coefficient exceeded 0.85. Moreover, the enhancements in the heat transfer capacity are found to be probably attributed to efficient liquid evaporation (removing substantial heat) and uniform liquid film distribution (avoiding dry zone and high thermal resistance). These findings can provide support information to enhance heat transfer via the atomisation spray technique for further research on evaporative condensers.

Simulations of sea fog case impacted by air–sea interaction over South China Sea

A sea fog event in the South China Sea was simulated using a coupled ocean–atmosphere model (WRF for the atmosphere and ROMS for the ocean). Offshore and onshore visibility, liquid water content, air temperature, humidity, and wind speed observations and MICAPS data were utilized to validate the model results. The results of the coupled model were also compared with those of the uncoupled atmosphere model. Sea fog duration in the coupled model was closer to offshore and onshore observations, but the uncoupled model emptily forecasted offshore fog, and underreported onshore fog. Air–sea temperature difference played an important role in regulating the formation and dissipation of sea fog. The decrease of sea surface temperature in the coupled model cooled the low-level atmosphere, promoted the condensation of low-level water vapor, and increased the low-level water vapor. The decrease of air–sea temperature difference strengthened the low-level stable stratification, which weakened the horizontal wind speed and favored the formation and development of sea fog. Rising wind speed was the major driver of fog dissipation.

A novel boil-off gas reliquefaction system using liquid air for intercontinental liquefied natural gas transportation

The boil-off gas (BOG) reliquefaction of cryogenic liquefied natural gas (LNG) for its intercontinental transport is challenging. This paper proposes a novel BOG reliquefaction system using liquid air and two different process designs: (i) low-pressure liquid air (LPLA) and (ii) high-pressure liquid air (HPLA). In the proposed system, an open refrigeration system using liquid air reliquefies BOG, thereby replacing the current commercial closed refrigeration cycle. As the temperature of liquid air is in the cryogenic range, the energy consumption to reliquefy BOG onboard approaches zero. However, the additional total weight of the ship is required to store liquid air, thus necessitating increased propulsion energy. Nevertheless, the reduction in energy needed for BOG reliquefaction exceeds the energy requirement for the added engine load. Thus, the LPLA shows a massive energy reduction from 4,913.07 to 642.67 kW compared to the commercial BOG reliquefaction process involving the nitrogen expander cycle. The HPLA process shows further improved results of 436.34 kW by expanding the vaporized high-pressure air. In addition, the proposed HPLA design exhibits an exergy efficiency of 77.4 %, which is 37.6 % higher than that of the commercial nitrogen expander process. A techno-economic analysis, including the purchase and transport cost of liquid air, is conducted to reflect an effort on on-shore liquid air production and transportation. Despite the additional liquid air tanks, the overall process configuration is much simpler than that of the current commercial BOG reliquefaction system. Thus, the proposed HPLA process is more economical than commercial processes for all representative voyage duration scenarios (8, 13, and 21 days).

Enhancement of the round-trip efficiency of liquid air energy storage (LAES) system using cascade cold storage units

In this research, the variation of round-trip efficiency in a liquid air energy storage system (LAES) is calculated and an optimal configuration is found. The multiple stages of cold energy storage are simulated with several materials that process latent heat at different temperature ranges. The effectiveness in the charging and discharging processes of LAES is newly defined, and its relationship with the round-trip efficiency is examined. According to defined correlation, the effectiveness of the discharging process significantly affects the overall system performance. The round-trip efficiency is calculated for the combined cold energy storage materials of aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution, ethanol, and pentane theoretically. The performance of LAES varies depending on the freezing point of the cold storage materials. In particular, when the LAES uses several cold storage materials, those materials whose freezing points are close to room temperature and liquid air temperature should be included in the cold storage materials. In this paper, it is assumed that only latent heat is used for cold energy storage, but for more realistic analyzes, the additional consideration of the transient thermal situation to utilize sensible heat is required. In the case of such a dynamic system, since there is certainly more increased heat capacity of the entire storage system, the volume of the cold energy storage system will be greatly reduced.

Narrow energy distributions of electrons emitted from clean graphene edges

This paper presents a study on electron field emission (FE) into ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) from a single, cleaned, graphene sheet where its single sheet nature has been carefully characterized and the emission zones are unambiguously the sheet edges. This definitive approach is in contrast to almost all other studies in the literature and can now guide theoretical work and applications. Our sample characterization starts with transmission electron microcopy imaging, Raman characterization, controlled mounting of individual flakes in a scanning electron microscope followed by in situ high temperature and high field treatments. Detailed FE characterization was carried out including current-voltage plots, FE microscopy, and electron energy spectroscopy during subsequent stages of sample cleaning, at room and liquid air temperatures. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the energy peak as well as its relative shift versus current and voltage were explored. A notable result is that the energy spectra are very narrow, ten times less than previously reported.

All-sky longwave downward radiation from satellite measurements: General parameterizations based on LST, column water vapor and cloud top temperature

Remotely sensed surface longwave downward radiation (LWDR) plays an essential role in studying the surface energy budget and greenhouse effect. Most existing satellite-based methods or products depend on variables that are not readily available from space such as, liquid water path, air temperature, vapor pressure and/or cloud-base temperature etc., which seriously restrict the wide applications of satellite data. In this paper, new nonlinear parameterizations and a machine learning-based model for deriving all-sky LWDR are proposed based only on land surface temperature (LST), column water vapor and cloud-top temperature (CTT), that are relatively readily available day and night for most satellite missions. It is the first time to incorporate the CTT in the parameterizations for estimating LWDR under the cloudy-sky conditions. The results reveal that the new models work well and can derive all-sky global LWDR with reasonable accuracies (RMSE <23 W/m2, bias <2.0 W/m2). The convenience of input data makes the new models easy to use, and thus will definitely expand the applicability of remotely sensed measurements in radiation budget fields and many land applications.

Experimental and numerical investigation on the evaporation performance of a cyclone-type spray desalination chamber

Complex heat and mass transfer in spray evaporators are areas of intense research due to their increasing predominance in thermal desalination industries. To improve evaporation performance, a cyclone-type spray desalination chamber is developed in this study. Influences of gas-to-liquid volume ratio, temperature and velocity of intake hot air, feeding liquid temperature and nozzle pressure upon evaporation are investigated experimentally and numerically. Thermocouples are used to obtain temperature distribution. Liquid flowmeter and hydrometer are equipped to record evaporation data. Results indicate that swirling flow prolongs the residence time of droplets in the chamber, thus evaporation efficiency can be improved. The rapid development of thermal field is closely related to the two-phase flow and intense phase change heat transfer. Evaporation increases and tends to be stable with gas-liquid ratio, intake air velocity and feeding liquid temperature. Evaporation performance can be improved significantly by increasing temperature of intake hot air. It is highly recommended to control the temperature of feeding liquid and intake air to balance between evaporation performance and energy efficiency. The two-phase flow field can be well organized by matching the spray cone angle and the swirling air flow, thus, a moderate nozzle pressure is suggested to obtain optimal evaporation performance.

High-Temperature Superconductivity

The critical temperature, Tc, for all presently known superconductors does not exceed 21'K. This fact obviously limits the range of applications of superconductivity in technology in a very fundamental way. On the whole, the reason why the value of Tc for “ordinary” superconductors would not exceed 20-40oK is fairly well understood. At the same time, there apparently could exist high temperature superconductors for which Tc would reach liquid air temperature or even room temperatures. Possible means of producing high temperature superconductors are considered in this article which is based on the review published in Contemporary Physics, 9, 355 (1968), but includes also some new material. Special attention is paid to what can be called the exciton mechanism of superconductivity and its application to systems of the “sandwich” type and metallic conductors with layer structures.

Experimental Investigation of Combustion Characteristics of Jatropha Biodiesel (JME) and its Diesel Blends for Gas Turbine Combustor

In present era, the scarcity of fossil fuels and their negative impact on environment drive the research in the field of alternative fuels, Biodiesel is one of such promising alternative fuel that are used in automobile, gas turbine, boiler and other furnace application. In the present study, an airblast atomizer along with axial swirler (swirler no. 0.76) is employed to investigate the combustion characteristic of Jatropha methyl ester (JME) and its diesel blends on gas turbine like combustor. During the experiment, fuel mass flow rate (40 ml/min), Air to liquid ratio (ALR=2) and air temperature (600K) are kept constant. For different equivalence ratio, spray and flame characterization, flame temperature, combustion efficiency and emission parameters such as carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen oxide (NOx) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) are determined. It is revealed that the flame temperature increases with increase in JME percentage in diesel and major pollutant such as CO, CO2 and UHC emissions decreases but it has been noticed that compared to diesel the NOx emission increases with increase in fraction of JME. The obtain results prove that biodiesel can be used as fuel for production of power in gas turbine instead of fossil fuels.

Experimental Investigations on Combustion Characteristics of Jatropha biodiesel (JME) and its Diesel Blends for Tubular Combustor Application

Scarcity of fossil fuels and their negative impact on environment drive the research in the field of alternative fuels. Biodiesel is one such promising alternative fuel that is used in automobile, gas turbine, boiler and other furnace applications. In the present study, combustion characteristics of biodiesel (Jatropha methyl ester) and its diesel blends in gas turbine like combustor have been studied experimentally. An airblast atomizer along with axial swirler (swirler no. 0.76) is employed to investigate the combustion characteristics. During the experiment, heat rate (24 kW), Air to liquid ratio (ALR=2) and air temperature (600K) was kept constant. For different equivalence ratio, spray and flame characterization, flame temperature, combustion efficiency and emission parameters such as carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen oxide (NOx) and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) were determined. It is found that the flame temperature increases with increase in JME percentage in diesel whereas and major pollutants such as CO, CO2 and UHC emissions decrease but the NOx emissions increases. The obtained results indicate that the biodiesel can be promising fuel for gas turbine power plants instead of fossil fuels.

Snowfall event characteristics from a high‑elevation site in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 63:171-190 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01291 Snowfall event characteristics from a high‑elevation site in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA Daniel T. Martin1, L. Baker Perry1,*, Douglas K. Miller2, Peter T. Soulé1 1Department of Geography and Planning, Appalachian State University, Rankin Science West, 572 Rivers Street, Boone, NC 28608, USA 2Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Robinson Hall, Asheville, NC 28804, USA *Corresponding author: perrylb@appstate.edu ABSTRACT: Accurate assessment of snowfall patterns in high-elevation remote areas is essential to providing a foundation for further climatological analyses. The Southern Appalachian Mountain (SAM) region of the eastern US provides a unique study area due to its low latitude and proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. Major snowstorms, such as the remnants of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, can result in heavy snowfall of 100 cm or greater in favorable upslope regions. Understanding the behavior of these precipitation patterns is important due to flooding threats caused by a combination of factors including deep snowpack exposed to heavy rainfall, cloud immersion, and high dew point temperatures, further exacerbating flooding threats. To contribute to this understanding, we installed the Mobile Precipitation Research and Monitoring (MOPRAM) station at Roan Mountain (1875 m) on the Tennessee/North Carolina border in October 2012. MOPRAM allowed us to analyze liquid equivalent precipitation, new snowfall, snow depth, air temperature, and relative humidity at high temporal resolutions during the 2012-2013 snow season. We present the observed snowfall event characteristics (e.g. new snowfall, liquid equivalent precipitation, atmospheric conditions, and synoptic patterns) along with how these characteristics compare to other sites in the SAM. In our 25 event dataset, we observed the following patterns: conditionally unstable upstream lapse rates; predominantly northwest winds; high-to-low elevation precipitation enhancement near a factor of 3; and 364 mm of snow liquid equivalent on Roan Mountain. An estimated 391 cm of snow fell at Roan during the 2012-2013 season using nearby snow liquid ratios as an estimate for snowfall. KEY WORDS: Orographic snowfall · New snowfall properties · Southern Appalachian Mountains Full text in pdf format NextCite this article as: Martin DT, Perry LB, Miller DK, Soulé PT (2015) Snowfall event characteristics from a high‑elevation site in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA. Clim Res 63:171-190. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01291 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 63, No. 3. Online publication date: May 20, 2015 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2015 Inter-Research.

Modeling global persistent organic chemicals in clouds

A cloud model was implemented in a global atmospheric transport model to simulate cloud liquid water content and quantify the influence of clouds on gas/aqueous phase partitioning of persistent organic chemicals (POCs). Partitioning fractions of gas/aqueous and particle phases in clouds for three POCs α-hexachlorocyclohexane (α-HCH), polychlorinated biphenyl-28 (PCB-28), and PCB-138 in a cloudy atmosphere were estimated. Results show that the partition fraction of these selected chemicals depend on cloud liquid water content (LWC) and air temperature. We calculated global distribution of water droplet/ice particle–air partitioning coefficients of the three chemicals in clouds. The partition fractions at selected model grids in the Northern Hemisphere show that α-HCH, a hydrophilic chemical, is sorbed strongly onto cloud water droplets. The computed partition fractions at four selected model grids show that α-HCH tends to be sorbed onto clouds over land (source region) from summer to early fall, and over ocean from late spring to early fall. 20–60% of α-HCH is able to be sorbed to cloud waters over mid-latitude oceans during summer days. PCB-138, one of hydrophobic POCs, on the other hand, tends to be sorbed to particles in the atmosphere subject to air temperature. We also show that, on seasonal or annual average, 10–20% of averaged PCB-28 over the Northern Hemisphere could be sorbed onto clouds, leading to reduction of its gas-phase concentration in the atmosphere.

New Hailstone Physics. Part I: Heat and Mass Transfer (HMT) and Growth

Abstract An all-encompassing new theory of heat and mass transfer (HMT) and growth equations have been developed for freely falling spherical hailstones with diameters of 0.5–8 cm. The initial six variables are diameter, liquid water content, air and hailstone surface temperatures, net collection efficiency, and ice fraction of spongy deposit. They are replaced by three or four new ones, depending on the three growth categories. Two new variables are products of “old” ones: (i) the square root of the Reynolds number Re and the liquid water content and (ii) net collection efficiency and ice fraction of the spongy deposit. Only the products matter, not the individual parts. [The two variables in (ii) are as important as the two in (i).] Two old variables remain: air and surface temperatures. The HMT can be further compacted for hailstorms with specified pressure–air temperature–height profiles. Further, Re for free-fall reveals unexpected complexities—issues important to solve HMT problems. The “new hailstone physics” is based on 55 years of in-house studies of all aspects of hailstone growth, followed by 5 years of shaping these puzzle pieces and assembling them into a coherent picture. This was only possible by recognizing the free-fall mode: a special gyration that allows hailstones to grow with a radial symmetry and, thus, homogeneous surface temperature. Part II will display the surprising solutions to growth and HMT and firmly link the hailstones to mostly spongy growth with shedding that favors a hail-coupled rain mechanism.

Simplified analysis of heat and mass transfer model in liquid desiccant regeneration process

Current study reveals an analytical solution of coupled heat and mass transfer processes in a packed bed liquid desiccant regenerator. This solution showed good accuracy when compared with reliable experimental data available in the literature. In order to maintain the mass transfer gradient on the interface, a high liquid desiccant flow rate is often applied in the regenerator. Hence, the solution flow rate and concentration change very little in the whole processes. The experimental results confirmed the validation of this topic. Therefore, for narrow range of operating conditions in practical regeneration process, with acceptable error we can assume that equilibrium humidity ratio is constant on the interface. The assumption of constant humidity ratio was applied in this paper for derivation of analytical solution. The effects of variables such as air and liquid desiccant flow rate, air temperature and humidity, desiccant temperature and concentration were investigated on the evaporation rate. Furthermore, a comparison is made between the present study and analytical solution given in the literature. The results showed that the present analytical solution can give better results than other analytical solutions that presented in the literature.

Experimental and Numerical Study on Effects of Airflow and Aqueous Ammonium Solution Temperature on Ammonia Mass Transfer Coefficient

This paper reports the results of an investigation, based on fundamental fluid dynamics and mass transfer theory, carried out to obtain a general understanding of ammonia mass transfer from an emission surface. The effects of airflow and aqueous ammonium solution temperature on ammonia mass transfer are investigated by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and by a mechanism modeling using dissociation constant and Henry’s constant models based on the parameters measured in the experiments performed in a wind tunnel. The validated CFD model by experimental data is used to investigate the surface concentration distribution and mass transfer coefficient at different temperatures and velocities for which the Reynolds number is from 1.36 × 104 to 5.43 × 104 (based on wind tunnel length). The surface concentration increases as velocity decreases and varies greatly along the airflow direction on the emission surface. The average mass transfer coefficient increases with higher velocity and turbulence intensity. However, the mass transfer coefficient estimated by CFD simulation is consistently larger than the calculated one by the method using dissociation constant and Henry’s constant models. In addition, the results show that the liquid-air temperature difference has little impact on the simulated mass transfer coefficient by CFD modeling, whereas the mass transfer coefficient increases with higher liquid temperature using the other method under the conditions that the liquid temperature is lower than the air temperature. Although there are differences of mass transfer coefficients between these two methods, the mass transfer coefficients determined by these two methods are significantly related.

Spray-drying of ginger juice and physicochemical properties of ginger powders.

The maturity of ginger rhizomes was studied by measuring their moisture content, fibre, density, and 6- gingerol content. Ginger rhizomes were harvested and divided into three groups according to their age of 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 months. The results revealed that as ginger rhizomes age, moisture content and density decreased, while fibre and 6-gingerol content increased. Therefore, ginger maturity with the age of 10-12 months was used in the drying process. The effects of the drying aids maltodextrin and liquid glucose and inlet air temperatures on the properties of ginger powders were assessed. Moisture content, water activity, bulk density, water adsorption index, 6-gingerol content, and colour values of ginger powders decreased with increasing inlet air temperatures. Particle size, solubility, and water solubility index increased with increasing inlet air temperatures (p 6 0.05). Moisture content, water activity, water adsorption index, and particle size decreased with increasing the drying aids. Solubility, water solubility index, and yield increased with increasing the drying aids. The addition of 5% liquid glucose and an inlet air temperature of 120 °C resulted in good properties and the highest 6-gingerol content of the ginger powders. It was noted that liquid glucose could function as a drying aid and as an encapsulating agent.

A CFD approach for modeling the rime-ice accretion process on a horizontal-axis wind turbine

The main objective of this paper is to model the rime-ice accretion process on a horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) operating under icing conditions. The model calculation procedure was divided into two stages. The first stage consists of computing the two-phase flow that is composed of air and water phases. The two-phase flow was solved using the Eulerian–Eulerian approach with the help of Fluent, a commercial CFD code. At the end of the calculations, it is possible to obtain the local volume fraction and local water incidence velocity, which can be used to estimate the local collision coefficient. In the second stage, the thickness of the newly accreted ice layer was calculated and the geometry so obtained was processed with an in-house smoothing algorithm. From the model simulation, it is possible to obtain the 3-D ice shape, as well as the ice load on the HAWT blade, which can then be used to analyze the performance of the HAWT under icing conditions, or to help develop a feasible de-icing solution. The important model input parameters include: air speed, median volume diameter (MVD) of water droplets, liquid water content (LWC) and air temperature. The turbine under consideration is a NREL VI turbine that rotates along its axis at a constant angular speed. In the flow domain, a rotating reference frame was defined to account for the angular movement of the wind turbine. The results reveal, among other things, ice geometry information that can otherwise hardly be obtained by on-site observations.

Prediction of Powder Stickiness along Spray Drying Process in Relation to Agglomeration

The spray drying process consists of a fast convective drying of liquid droplets by hot air. Initially, the water activity (aw) of a drop is close to 1. During drying, the drop surface aw decreases while viscosity increases until reaching a sticky rubbery state before further drying. This can be observed for products such as carbohydrates, leading to particles sticking on walls (product losses) or to adhesion between particles leading to agglomeration. In this study, particle stickiness was investigated in a cocurrent pilot spray dryer by measuring drying air properties (temperature and relative humidity) at different positions. This allowed describing the evolution of temperature and mean water content of the drying drops. Two model products (maltodextrin DE12 and DE21) were spray dried varying process parameters liquid flow rate (1.8, 3.6, and 5.4 kg/h), air temperature (144°, 174°, and 200°C), airflow rate (80–110 kg/h), and rotary atomizer speed (22,500–30,000 rpm). The two products exhibit different drying behaviors in relation to their affinity towards water (sorption isotherms) and glass transition temperature evolution with aw (stickiness). Depending on drying conditions and product, the drop stickiness was observed very rapidly, close to the atomizer, or later, along the chamber. This approach can be used to identify conditions and positions corresponding to sticky particles.