Tags:agglomeration, layering, numerical scheme and population balance
Abstract:
Granulation processes are frequently used in the fertilizer industry to produce different grades of mineral fertilizers. Large recycle ratios and poor product quality control are some of the problems faced by such industries. Thus, for real time model based process control and optimization, it is necessary to find an appropriate numerical scheme that can find solution of the model sufficiently accurate and fast. In this study, population balance principles were used to model particle granulation processes. Different numerical schemes were tested to find simple yet sufficiently accurate solution schemes for population balance equation. Numerical schemes were applied to find the solution of both the layering term and the agglomeration term that appear in the population balance equation. The accuracies of the numerical schemes were assessed by comparing the numerical results with analytical, tractable solutions. Comparison of the accuracy of numerical schemes showed that a high resolution scheme with Koren flux limiter function might be a good choice for the layering term term discretization, while a cell averaging technique produce a sufficiently accurate solution for the agglomeration term discretization.
Solving the Population Balance Equation for Granulation Processes: Particle Layering and Agglomeration