Continuous agglomeration in a horizontal fluidized bed
Spray fluidized bed agglomeration is one of important process in particle formation, which is widely used in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry. In the spray fluidized bed agglomeration process, the fluidized particles are wetted by spraying a liquid then wet agglomeration occurs when a wet particle collides with another particle and gets bound with it by a liquid bridge which solidifies by drying. The spray liquid is usually an aqueous solution.
Fluidization bed agglomeration process can be performed both in batch and continuous operation. The agglomeration results can be influenced by process parameters such as fluidization air speed, air temperature, type and fraction of binder, setting of atomizers, configuration of baffles and so on. The horizontal fluidized bed which model is GF/Procell 20 will be employed. The experiment will be conducted with glass beads and water-based binder hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC). In addition, the residence time distribution (RTD) of particles in horizontal fluidized bed also draws a lot of attentions. To characterize RTD, glass beads coated with sodium benzoate are used as tracers.
Fluidization bed agglomeration process can be performed both in batch and continuous operation. The agglomeration results can be influenced by process parameters such as fluidization air speed, air temperature, type and fraction of binder, setting of atomizers, configuration of baffles and so on. The horizontal fluidized bed which model is GF/Procell 20 will be employed. The experiment will be conducted with glass beads and water-based binder hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC). In addition, the residence time distribution (RTD) of particles in horizontal fluidized bed also draws a lot of attentions. To characterize RTD, glass beads coated with sodium benzoate are used as tracers.
The main tasks are as follows:
- Literature research on spray fluidized bed agglomeration and continuous agglomeration processes
- Determination of parameters such as air temperature, air speed, mass fraction of binder, spray rate of binder and nozzles configuration, then conduct test experiments
- Preparation and conduction of a suitable experimental plan to investigate process behavior and product properties
- Wash the agglomerations and reuse the glass beads
- Analysis of samples taken from experiments, measurements of quality parameters like: particle size (Camsizer), particle structure (SEM), moisture content (drying oven), residence time distribution
- Suitable interpretation of results in written form and presentation in oral
Start of the thesis: as soon as possible