Effect of scale of operation on granule strength in high shear granulators

Results of a study on the influence of operation scale and impeller speed of high shear mixer granulators on the strength of granlues are reported in this paper. Calcium carbonate particles have been granulated in four scales of a geometrically similar high shear granulator (Cyclomix) with 1, 5, 50 and 250 L capacities. For the smallest scale, the effect of a small deviation from geometric similarity was also investigated. An aqueous solution of polyethylene glycol was used as the binder. Three scaling rules of constant tip speed, constant shear stress and constant Froude number have been used to determine the impeller speed for the different scales of the granulators. The granules produced in these experiments have been dried and tested for strength using side crushing test method. The data have then been analysed and compared. Operation of granulators according to the constant tip speed rule produces granules with a similar strength for all four scales, followed by a similar trend for the constant shear stress rule, albeit to the less extent. The constant Froude number rule produces a heterogeneous strength distribution and is not a suitable criterion for scaling-up of high shear granulators. The distribution of granule strength has been fitted to the normal, log-normal and Weibull distributions. Weibull distribution fits the data well for the constant tip speed operations.