Fluid mechanics optimized for more energy-efficient food powder production

Dr. Miguel Ángel Ballesteros Martínez receives the Friedrich Meuser Research Award 2025

18-Sep-2025
Michaela Wohlleber, FEI

Awarded for his outstanding dissertation on spray drying: Dr. Miguel Ángel Ballesteros Martínez with the certificate presented to him by FEI Chairman Dr. Götz Kröner (right). Left in the picture: Dr. Georg Munz (FEI Managing Director)

By better understanding and controlling the multiphase flow, the spray performance parameters can be improved in a targeted manner. With this approach, Dr. Miguel Ángel Ballesteros Martínez was able to make a practical contribution to the development of energy-efficient spray drying processes and manufacture products with improved powder properties.

Spray drying is a key technology for the production of shelf-stable food powders. The dissertation entitled "Fluid mechanics inside spray nozzles: The key to targeted product design and improved energy efficiency in spray drying processes" examines two types of atomizing nozzles with different objectives: the air-core liquid ring (ACLR) nozzle for increasing efficiency and process intensification and the hollow cone pressure nozzle for targeted product design of emulsion-based powders.

The chemical engineer was awarded the Friedrich Meuser Research Prize 2025 for his outstanding dissertation, which impressed with its scientific excellence as well as its application relevance and implementation. The prize was presented to him by FEI Chairman Dr. Götz Kröner at the FEI Annual Conference on 11 September 2025 in Neustadt an der Weinstraße. The prize, donated in 2019, is endowed with prize money of 2,500 euros and named after the long-standing head of the Scientific Advisory Board, Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedrich Meuser.

Ballesteros Martínez's dissertation was supervised by Privatdozent Dr. Volker Gaukel and was written at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as part of the Industrial Collective Research (IGF) project funded by the RDI "Influence of process control and matrix material on the oil droplet size in the atomization step of a spray drying process for the production of powdery formulations with microencapsulated lipophilic components (IGF 21539 N).

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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Topic world AI for food and beverages