Process for preparing a gas generating composition

A process for preparing a gas generating composition for a vehicle occupant protection apparatus comprising the following steps:

• obtaining desired quantities of ingredients of the gas generating composition measured in predetermined amounts according to the percentage of the ingredients in the gas generating composition, the ingredients including an oxidizer, a fuel, an elastomeric binder and a dispersant;
• mixing the ingredients with an azeotrope to form a suspension, the azeotrope comprising at least two solvents, wherein one of the solvents has a solubility parameter effective to dissolve the elastomeric binder in the azeotrope and the other of the solvents has a polarity effective to dissolve the dispersant in the azeotrope;
• atomizing the suspension to form a stream of spheroid droplets;
• and
• contacting the spheroid droplets with gas to remove the azeotrope from said spray droplets and produce solid spheroid particles of the gas generating composition in which the oxidizer and fuel particles are intimately mixed with each other and bound together by the elastomeric binder.