Further investigations on the influence of scale-up of a high shear granulator on the granule properties--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Rahmanian, N., Ganimi, T. E., & Ghadiri, M. (2013). Further investigations on the influence of scale-up of a high shear granulator on the granule properties. Particuology, 11(6), 627–635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2013.02.004

Further investigations on the influence of scale-up of a high shear granulator on the granule properties

Nejat Rahmanian ^{a b *}, Tamader El Ganimi ^a, Mojtaba Ghadiri ^a

a Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
b Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh 31750, Perak, Malaysia

10.1016/j.partic.2013.02.004

Volume 11, Issue 6, December 2013, Pages 627-635

Received 18 March 2012, Revised 26 January 2013, Accepted 16 February 2013, Available online 17 June 2013.

E-mail: rahmaniyan@yahoo.com; nejatollah.r@petronas.com.my

Highlights

• Scale-up of a high shear granulator was studied.

• Granule properties and wall make-up were characterised as a function of granulator scale.

• Constant tip speed rule was found as the best criterion for scale-up of the granulator.

Abstract

This study focuses on the characterisation of strength, density, and size of granules produced in various scales of a high shear granulator. Calcium carbonate (Durcal 65) was used as the feed powder and aqueous polyethylene glycol (PEG 4000) as the binder. The dried granules were analysed for their strength, density, size distribution, and wall make-up. Granules were produced in granulators with four scales, 1, 5, 50, and 250 L under three scale-up rules of constant tip speed, constant shear stress, and constant Froude number. The results show that regardless of equipment scale, increasing the impeller speed has a great effect on crushing strength and stress. The underlying cause is an increase in granule density due to more consolidation at higher impeller speeds. Wall make-up is significantly reduced to less than 5% as the scale is increased from 1 to 250 L. The results of this study corroborate our previous findings that the constant tip speed rule is the best criterion for scale-up of high shear granulators.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

High shear granulator; Strength characterisation; Cyclomix; Scale-up; Wall make-up

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