Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

LECTURE - 7

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Size Reduction
The term size reduction is applied to all the ways in which particles of solids are cut or broken into smaller pieces In the chemical Industry, size reduction or comminution is usually carried out in order to increase the surface The energy required to effect size reduction is related to the internal structure of the material

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Size Reduction
The process really consists of two parts
first opening up any small fissures which are already present secondly forming new surfaces

From the point of view of energy utilization

size reduction is a very inefficient process only between 0.1 and 2.0 percent energy supplied to the machine appears as increased surface energy in the solids

The efficiency of the process is very much influenced by

the manner in which the load is applied and its magnitude the nature of the force exerted is also very important

To obtain the most effective utilization of energy

the force should be only slightly in excess of the crushing strength of the material

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Size Reduction
Solids may be broken in many different ways, but only four of them are commonly used in size reduction machines:
Compression: Particle disintegration by two rigid forces Impact: Particle concussion by a single rigid force Shear: Produced by a fluid or by particle-particle interaction Attrition- arising from particles scraping against one another or against a rigid surface

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Size Reduction
In general
compression is used for coarse reduction of hard solids, to give relatively few fines impact gives coarse, medium, or fine products attrition yields very fine products from soft, nonabrasive materials cutting gives a definite particle size and sometimes a definite shape, with few fine or no fine

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Principles of Comminution
Comminution is a generic term for size reduction
crushers and grinders are types of comminuting equipment

An ideal crusher or grinder would

have a large capacity require a small power input per unit of product yield a product of the single size or the size distribution desired

The usual method of studying the performance of process equipment is to

set up an ideal operation as a standard compare the characteristics of the actual equipment with those of the ideal unit account for the difference between the two

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Characteristics of Comminuted Products

The objective of crushing and grinding is to produce small particles from larger ones One measure of the efficiency of the operation is based on the energy required to create new surface
the surface area of a unit mass of particles increases greatly as the particle size is reduced

Unlike an ideal crusher or grinder, an actual unit does not yield a uniform product
whether the feed is uniformly sized or not

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Characteristics of Comminuted Products

The product always consists of a mixture of particles
ranging from a definite maximum size to very small particles

The ratio of the diameters of the largest and smallest particles in a comminuted product is of the order of 104

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Energy and Power Requirements

The cost of power is a major expenses in crushing and grinding
so the factors that control this cost are important

When the material fractures, new surface area is created Each new unit area of surface requires a certain amount of energy The energy required for fracture is a complicated function of the
type of material Size Hardness other factors

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Energy and Power Requirements

Some of the energy added is used to create the new surface, but a large portion of it appears as heat

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Energy and Power Requirements

Crushing Efficiency (c)
The ratio of the surface energy created by crushing to the energy absorbed by the solid The energy absorbed by a unit mass of the material Wn is

Wn =

es ( Awb Awa )

Where, es = surface energy per unit area Awb and Awa = areas per unit mass of product and feed The surface energy created by fracture is small in comparison with the total mechanical energy stored in the material Most of the energy is converted into heat Crushing efficiencies are therefore low and its range between 0.06 and 1 percent

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Energy and Power Requirements

Mechanical Efficiency
The energy absorbed by the solid Wn is less than that fed to the machine Part of the total energy input W is used to overcome friction in the bearings and other moving parts the rest is available for crushing The energy input,

Wn =

Wn

es ( Awb Awa )

mc

The ratio of the energy absorbed to the energy input is m

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Energy and Power Requirements

If m is the feed rate, the power required by the machine is

&W = P=m

& es ( Awb Awa ) m

mc

& es 1 6m 1 P= mc p b D sb a D sa

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Rittingers Law
A crushing law proposed by Rittinger in 1867 states that
the work required in crushing is proportional to the new surface created

This law, which is really no more than a hypothesis

is equivalent to the statement that the crushing efficiency is constant and, for a given machine and feed material is independent of the sizes of feed and product

If the sphericities are equal for product and feed and the mechanical efficiency is constant
the various constants can be combined into a single constant, Kr

P 1 1 = Kr & m D sb D sa

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Rittingers Law
Rittingers Law is applicable
for fine grinding where the increase in surface per unit mass of material is predominant energy input per unit mass of material is not too high feed size of less than 0.05 mm

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Kicks Law
In 1885 Kick proposed another law, based on stress analysis of plastic deformation within the elastic limit This law states that the work required for crushing a given mass of material is constant for same reduction ratio
that is the ratio of initial particle size to the final particle size
P D sa = K k ln & m D sb

This law is more accurate than Rittingers law for coarse crushing

where the surface area per unit mass is considerably less

Law is applicable for feed size of greater than 50 mm

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Generalized Relation
A generalized relation for both cases is the differential equation Kd D s P d = n & m Ds
n = 1,2 leads to Kicks law and Rittingers law, respectively

Both Kicks and Rittingers law have been shown to apply over limited ranges of particle size Kk and Kr are determined experimentally
by tests in a machine of the type to used with the material to be crushed

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Bonds Law
A somewhat more realistic method of estimating the power required for crushing and grinding was proposed by Bond in 1952 Bond postulated that
the work required to form particles of size Dp from very large feed is proportional to the square root of the surface to volume ratio of the product , sp/vp

P Kb = & m Dp
Where Kb is a constant that depends on the type of machine and one the material being crushed This is equivalent to a solution of generalized equation

with n = 1.5 and a feed of infinite size

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Bonds Law
A Work Index Wi is defined as
the gross energy requirement in kWh per ton of feed needed to reduce a large feed to such a size that 80 percent of the product passes to 100 m screen This definition leads to a relationship between Kb and Wi If Dp in millimeters, P in kilowatts and m in tons per hour

K b = 100 10 3Wi = 0.3162Wi If 80 percent of the feed passes a mesh size of Dpa millimeters and 80 percent of the product a mesh of Dpb millimeters, it gives
1 P 1 = 0.3162Wi Dpb & m D pa

The work index includes the friction in the crusher, and the power given is gross power

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Problem
3 kW has to be supplied to a machine crushing material at the rate of 0.3 kg/s from 12.5 mm cubes to a product having the following sizes: 80% 3.175 mm, 10% 2.5 mm, and 10% 2.25 mm. What would be the power which would have to be supplied to this machine to crush 0.3 kg/s of the same material from 7.5 mm cube to 2.0 mm cube?

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Size Reduction Equipments

Size reduction equipment is divided into
Crushers Grinders Ultrafine grinders Cutting machines

Crushers do the heavy work of breaking large pieces of solid material into small lumps A primary crusher operates on run-of-mine material
accepting anything that comes from the mine face and breaking it into 150 to 250 mm lumps

A secondary crusher reduces these lumps to particles perhaps 6 mm in size Grinders reduce crushed feed to powder

Selected Chemical Engineering Operations

Size Reduction Equipments

The product from an intermediate grinder might pass a 40 mesh screen
most of the product from a fine grinder would pass a 200 mesh screen with a 74 m opening

An ultrafine grinder accepts feed particles no longer than 6 mm

the product size is typically 1 to 50 m

Cutters give particles of definite size and shape of 2 to 10 mm in length

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Type of Crushers
Types of size reduction machines
Crusher (Coarse and Fine)

Crushers are slow speed machine for coarse reduction of large quantities of solids
Jaw Crusher Gyratory Crusher Crushing Rolls

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Jaw Crusher
Jaw crusher operate by compression and can break large lumps of very hard materials
as in the primary and secondary reduction of rocks and ores

In a Jaw crusher
feed is admitted between two jaws set to form a V open at the top One Jaw, the fixed, or anvil, Jaw is nearly vertical and does not move the other, the swinging Jaw, reciprocates in a horizontal plane It makes an angle of 20 to 300 with the anvil Jaw It is driven by an eccentric so that it applies great compressive force to lumps caught between the Jaws Large lumps caught between the upper parts of the Jaw are broken

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Jaw Crusher
Drops into the narrower space below Recrushed the next time the jaws close After sufficient reduction they dropout the bottom of the machine

The Jaws open and close 250 to 400 times per minute The Jaw faces are flat or slightly bulged; they may carry shallow horizontal grooves The greatest amount of motion is at the bottom of the V
which means that there is little tendency for a crusher of this kind to choke

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Jaw Crusher

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Gyratory Crusher
A gyratory crusher may be looked upon as a jaw crusher Gyratory crusher consists of
circular jaws, between which material is being crushed at some points at all times A conical crushing head gyrates inside a funnel shaped casing, open at the top The crushing head is carried on a heavy shaft pivoted at the top of the machine An eccentric drives the bottom end of the shaft At any point on the periphery of the casing, therefore, the bottom of the crushing head moves toward Then away from the stationary wall Solids caught in the V shaped space between the head and the casing

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Gyratory Crusher
are broken and re-broken until they pass out the bottom The crushing head is free to rotate on the shaft It turns slowly because of friction with the material being crushed

The speed of the crushing head is typically 125 to 425 gyrations/min Because some parts of the crushing head is working at all times
the discharge from a gyratory is continuous instead of intermittent as in a jaw crusher

Less maintenance is required than with a jaw crusher The power requirement per ton of material crushed is smaller

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Gyratory Crusher
The capacity of a gyratory crusher varies with
the jaw setting the impact strength of the feed the speed of gyration of the machine

The capacity is almost independent of the compressive strength of the material being crushed

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Gyratory Crusher

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Gyratory Crusher

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Gyratory Crusher

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Smooth Roll Crusher

Two heavy smooth faced metal rolls turning on parallel horizontal axes Particles of feed caught between the rolls are broken in compression and dropout below The rolls turn towards each other at the same speed They have relatively narrow faces and are large in diameter
so that they can nip moderately large lumps

Roll speeds ranges from 50 to 300 r/min Smooth roll crushers are secondary crusher
with feeds 12 to 75 mm in size and product 12 mm to about 1 mm

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Smooth Roll Crusher

The particle size of the product depends on the
spacing between the rolls as the capacity of the given machine

Smooth roll crushers gives few fines and virtually no oversize They operate most effectively when set to give a reduction ratio of the 3 or 4 to 1 A system where
a spherical or cylindrical particle of radius r2 is being fed to crushing rolls of radius r1 2 is the angle of nip, the angle between the two common tangents to the particle and each of the rolls 2b is the distance between the rolls

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Smooth Roll Crusher

It is shown from the geometry of the system that the angle of the nip is given by

r1 + b cos = r2 + r1
The maximum size of the product is approximately equal to 2b For steel rolls, the angle of nip will be not greater than about 320

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Smooth Roll Crusher

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Smooth Roll Crusher

A certain set of crushing rolls has rolls of 100 cm diameter by 38 cm width face. They are set so that the crushing surfaces are 1.25 cm apart at the narrowest point. The manufacturer recommends that they may be run at 50 to 100 r.p.m. They are to crush a rock having a specific gravity of 2.35, and the angle of nip is 300C. What are the maximum permissible size of feed and the maximum actual capacity in tons per hour, if the actual capacity is 12 percent of the theoretical. Ans: 25.25 tons/hr

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Grinders
The term grinder describes a variety of size reduction machines for intermediate duty The product from a crusher is often fed to a grinder, in which it is reduced to a powder Some grinders are given below
Hammer Mills: impactors Rolling-Compression Mills Attrition Mills Tumbling Mills

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Hammer Mills: impactors

These mills all contain a high-speed rotor turning inside a cylindrical casing, the shaft is usually horizontal Feed dropped into the top of the casing is broken and falls out through a bottom opening In a hammer mill the particles are broken by sets of swing hammers pinned to rotor disk A particle of feed entering the grinding zone cannot escape being struck by the hammers It shatters into pieces
which fly against a stationary anvil plate inside the casing and break into still smaller fragments

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Hammer Mills: impactors

these in turn are rubbed into powder by the hammers pushed through a grate or screen that covers the discharge opening

Hammer mills grind almost anything

tough fibrous, solid like bark or leather, steel turnings, soft wet pastes, sticky clay, hard rock

For fine reduction they are limited to the softer materials An impactor resembles a heavy duty hammer mill except that contain no grate or screen Particles are broken by impact alone, without the rubbing action characteristic of a hammer mill

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Hammer Mills: impactors

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Rolling Compression Mill

In this kind of mill
the solid particles are caught and crushed between a rolling member and face of the ring or casing vertical cylindrical rollers passes outwards with great force against a stationary anvil ring or bull ring they are driven at moderate speeds in a circular path Plows lift the solid lumps from the floor of the mill direct them between the ring and the rolls, where reduction takes place Product is swept out of the mill by a stream of air to a classifier separator from which oversize particles are returned to the mill for further reduction

Mills of this kind find most application in the reduction of lime stone, cement clinker, and coal

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Attrition Mill
In an attrition mill
particles of soft solids are rubbed between the grooved flat faces of rotating cylindrical disks

The axis of the disk is usually horizontal, sometimes vertical In a single runner mill
one disk is stationary and one rotates

In a double runner machine

both disks are driven at high speed in opposite direction

Feed enters through an opening in the hub of one of the disk It passes outwards through the narrowgap between the disks

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Attrition Mill
Discharges from the periphery into a stationary casing The width of the gap, within limits is adjustable At least one grinding plate is spring mounted so that the disks can separate
if unbreakable material gets into the mill

Mills with different patterns of grooves corrugations, or teeth of the disks perform a variety of operations
Grinding, cracking, granulating, and shredding Even some operations not related to size reduction at all, such as blending and feather curling

Double runner mills, in general grind to finer products than single runner mills but process softer feeds

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Attrition Mill
Air is often drawn through the mill to remove the product and prevent choking The energy required depends strongly on
the nature of the feed the degree of reduction accomplished much than in the mills and crushers described so far

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Attrition Mill

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Tumbling Mill
A cylindrical shell slowly turning about a horizontal axis
filled to about half its volume with a solid grinding medium

forms a tumbling mill The shell is usually steel lined with high carbon steel plate, porcelain, silica rock, or rubber The grinding medium is
metal rods in a rod mill lengths of chain or balls of metal rubber or wood in a ball mill flint pebbles or porcelain or zircon spheres in a pebble mill

For intermediate and fine reduction or abrasive materials tumbling mills are unequaled Tumbling mills may be batch or continuous

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Tumbling Mill
In a batch machine
a measured quantity of the solid to be ground is loaded into the mill through an opening in the shell the opening is then closed and the mill turned on the several hours it is then stopped and the product is discharged

In a continuous mill
the solid flows steadily through the revolving shell entering at one end through a hollow trunnion leaving at the other end through trunnion or through peripheral openings in the shell

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Tumbling Mill
In all tumbling mills
the grinding elements are carried up the side of the shell nearly to the top from where they fall on the particles underneath The energy expended in lifting the grinding units is utilized in reducing the size of the particle

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Tumbling Mill

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Action in Tumbling Mill

The load of balls in ball or tube mill is normally such that
the balls occupy about one-half volume of the mill

The void fraction in the mass of balls, when at rest, is typically 0.4 The grinding may be done with
Dry solids More commonly the feed is a suspension of the particles in water

This increase both the capacity and efficiency of the mill

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Action in Tumbling Mill

When the mill is rotated
the balls are picked up by the mill wall and carried nearly at the top where they break contact with the wall and fall to the bottom to be picked up again Centrifugal force keeps the ball in contact with the wall and with each other

During the upward movement

while in contact with the wall the balls do some grinding by slipping and rolling over each other

Most of the grinding occurs at the zone of impact

where the free falling balls strike the bottom of the mill

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Action in Tumbling Mill

The faster the mill is rotated
the farther the balls are carried up inside the mill the greater the power consumption

The added power is profitably used

because the higher the balls are when they are released the greater the impact at the bottom and the larger the productive capacity of the mill

If the speed is too high

the balls are carried over and the mill is said to be centrifuging

The speed at which centrifuging occurs is called the critical speed

little or no grinding is done when a mill is centrifuging

operating speed must be less than critical

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Action in Tumbling Mill

The speed at which the outermost ball lose the contact with the wall of the mill depends on
the balance between gravitational and centrifugal forces

The centripetal component of the force of gravity opposes the centrifugal force
As long as the centrifugal force exceeds the centripetal force the ball will not break contact with the wall

As the angle decreases

the centripetal force increases

Unless the speed exceeds the critical

a point is reached where the opposing forces are equal and the particle is ready to fall

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Action in Tumbling Mill

The angle at which this occurs is found by equating the two forces mg cos m{4 2 n 2 ( R r )}
gc = gc 4 2 n 2 ( R r ) cos = g

At critical speed, = 0, cos = 1, and n becomes the critical speed nc

1 nc = 2 g Rr

Tumbling mills run at 65 to 80 percent of the critical speed

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Open Circuit and Close Circuit Operation

In many mills the feed is broken into particles of satisfactory size by passing it once through the mill When no attempt is made to return oversize particles to the machine for further reduction
the mill is said be operating in open circuit

This may require excessive amount of power

much energy is wasted in regrinding particles that are already fine enough

Thus it is often economical to remove partially ground material from the mill and pass it through a size separation device
The undersize becomes the product and oversize is returned to be reground

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Open Circuit and Close Circuit Operation

The separation device is sometimes inside the mill or as is more common, it is outside the mill Close circuit operation is the term applied to the action of a mill and separator connected
so that the oversize particles are returned to the mill

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Open Circuit and Close Circuit Operation

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