Granulation Is Done To
Granulation Is Done To
Granulation Is Done To
This is, in fact, much the same as the feed preparation system for a conventional wet
granulation plant or a bulk blending plant.
Compaction section
This section comprises a number of sub-units :
- the compactor feed hopper
- the roller compactor with its force-feeder
- the flake-breaker, if required depending on the size of the flakes produced by the roller
compactor
Granulation section
This section comprises the equipment to make the granules from the flakes: it is broken
up into smaller fragments in a primary crusher-granulator installed downstream of the
roller compactor. Particles in the desired size range (for example, between 2 and 4 mm)
are screened and removed as product, while the oversize (above 4 mm) is returned to a
secondary crusher granulator and the undersize (under 2 mm) to the roller compactor.
This stage of the compaction-granulation process has a significant effect on plant
capacity.
Finishing section
This section comprises a dry polishing unit and a coating unit. The dry polishing unit
consists of a polishing drum and a finishing screen. The polishing drum improves the
quality of the final product by rounding off the sharp edges of the granules and destroys
any that are of substandard strength. The undersize finishing screen subsequently
removes the dust generated by the abrasion of granules in the polishing drum. This limits
the amount of dust that is formed when the product is handled and used.
before the roller compactor : due to the small rise in temperature (around 20C) during
run-through of product in the
roller compactor, the water is eliminated naturally).
-
no energy is required for drying ; energy for the process is supplied in the form of
electricity (around 30% less than the
the level of pollution caused by the process is very low because there are no liquid
or gas effluents to be processed. The
- the process can use powdery raw materials which cannot be easily used in bulk
blending.
-
granulation process for technical reasons (for instance, high urea content fertilizer,
potassium sulphate).
-
the fertilizers manufactured using this process are less prone to caking (the
compaction-granulation uses dry
operation and maintenance of the plant is easy ; therefore, staff do not require
special training. And finally, only a very
The irregular particle surface and shape characteristics of compacted products may
promote caking during storage and handling and because of the increased surface area
of the irregular particle compared with the more rounded granules produced by other
granulation processes.
Wet granulation
In wet granulation, granules are formed by the addition of a granulation liquid onto a
powder bed which is under the influence of an impeller (in a high-shear granulator,
screws (in a twin screw granulator) or air (in a fluidized bed granulator). The agitation
resulting in the system along with the wetting of the components within the formulation
results in the aggregation of the primary powder particles to produce wet granules. The
granulation liquid contains a solvent which must be volatile so that it can be removed by
drying, and be non-toxic. Typical liquids include water, ethanol and isopropanol either
alone or in combination. The liquid solution can be either aqueous based or solventbased. Aqueous solutions have the advantage of being safer to deal with than solvents.
Water mixed into the powders can form bonds between powder particles that are strong
enough to lock them together. However, once the water dries, the powders may fall
apart. Therefore, water may not be strong enough to create and hold a bond. In such
instances, a liquid solution that includes a binder is required. Once the solvent/water has
been dried and the powders have formed a more densely held mass, then the
granulation is milled. This process results in the formation of granules. In the traditional
wet granulation method the wet mass is forced through a sieve to produce wet granules
which are subsequently dried.
WET GRANULATION