Influence of drying and granulation process conditions on the characteristics of micronutrient chelates granules

Abstract

Fluidized-bed spray granulation (FBSG) enables manufacturing particles with desired characteristics, including particle size distribution (PSD), density, or dust content. This study investigated the effect of selected factors on the granules obtained in a continuous FBSG of chelated fertilizers for foliar applications. The effect of surfactant addition to the solution sprayed into the bed and perturbations of operating parameters on PSD and granules morphology was studied. The experiments were supplemented with calculations based on a population balance equation (PBE). It was shown that granules manufactured with the tenside addition are more regular in shape, and thus less prone to mechanical wear. It was demonstrated that increasing rotational mill speed does contribute to a slight increase in the amount of dust, but in the long term, it does not disturb the regular agglomeration process. The computational results confirm that, despite the complexity of the process, its description with PBE is feasible.

Keywords

• fluidized bed spray granulation
• chelate granules
• surfactants
• population balance modelling
• granule morphology