:Described process

Prior to spray drying, the slurry passes a buffer vessel and magnetic filter. Two pumps
in series increase the pressure of the fluid to 80 bar for nozzle atomisation. Hot air is
produced by the combustion of natural gas with excess oxygen. Flue gases, plus
heated drying air, enter the spray dryer at 350 – 450 °C and leave at 90 – 110 °C. The
exhaust air contains also entrained BP and fines, and the evaporated slurry moisture.
The recovery of BP occurs in the dry cyclone, after which fines are collected by a
fabric bag filter and clean air released to the atmosphere.

Hot BP from the bottom of the spray dryer is discharged onto a belt conveyor, and
cooled and elevated in an airlift to 30 °C. The air stream exiting this unit is also fed
through a fabric filter. Powder agglomerates are removed by the sieve, and recycled
directly to the screw conveyor. Thereafter, the desired size BP is mixed with the post
additive solids, and sprayed with perfume oil, to produce the DP product.

3.3.6 Airlift

Discharged BP from T-201 is cooled and crystallised in the airlift (A-201). This is
required to ensure stability of the post-additives, particularly the enzymes and
bleaching agents. Relative activity of Savinase – a popular, bleach resistant protease
enzyme used in DPs – is optimum at 50 ºC, above which it rapidly decreases due to
denaturation. Furthemore, NaH2BO4 releases oxygen above 60 ºC, thus for both
components to maintain stable and inactive, the powder must be cooled to 25 – 35 ºC
(Smulders et al., 2002, pp.74-86).

Air is drawn upwards inside the vertical pipeline to elevate the BP, entering the
system during the discharge of BP from the belt conveyor into the airlift hopper. The
speed at which the air travels in order to lift the BP is determined by the latter’s
terminal velocity, estimated with Eq.3.1 (York, 2019).

( ρ p −ρf ) g d p
ut =1.75
√ ρf
Eq. 3.1

Where ut is the particle terminal velocity in m s-1; ρ p is the particle density in kg m-3; ρ f is the
fluid density in kg m-3; g is the acceleration due to gravity, 9.81 m s -2 and d p is the particle
diameter in m.
The BP particle density ( ρ p ) was itself estimated using the mass fraction of each component,
divided by the intrinsic density of the component (Appendix E.2). The summation of these
values gives ρ p = 1961 kg m-3. Ambient air at the bottom the pipeline is suctioned upwards by
a fan, located after the gravity separator. At the base of the pipe, the air pressure is
atmospheric, giving a ρ f =1.165 kg m-3 (Czernia, 2019). Terminal velocity at the base is thus

10.1 m s-1, using d p= 2 x10-3 m (Chapter 6 Section 1.4). To ensure elevation, an air speed of
15 m s-1 should be designed.

Separation of the BP from the air at top of A-201 is achieved in a gravity separator
expansion vessel located within the unit column (FL Smidth, 2019). The diameter of
the separator is designed larger than the A-201 diameter, hence a decrease in pressure
and velocity of the air. This should be such that ut exceeds the air speed. Following
the A-201, all powder transportation mechanisms are conducted under gravity,
decreasing pneumatic conveying capital and operative cost.

3.3.7 Sieve

To produce a DP of a specified size distribution, a sieve (S-301) is included to

separate powder at d p = 1400 μm, above which is recycled to C-101 . The unit itself is
required to be low impact, thus not to change the powder size, compactly designed
and able retain a quick flow through rate (SepSol, 2016); achieved in a vibratory
sieve.

6.1.5 A-201

Figure 6.6 shows the airlift unit and connected fabric filter. As previously stated, stream 21 is
assumed to contain fines of negligible mass, thus a mass balance has not been given for this
stream, or that of 30, 32 and 33. However, stream 32 will gain a value given cleaning of the
F-202, for the recycling of fines to C-101.

33
30

31
32
F-202
21

17 Airlift
20
A-201

19
Figure 6.6: A-201, used to cool the BP, and F-202,
used for emissions control.
Assumptions:

 All BP in stream 17 is lifted by the air (stream 19), given the plant is operating
under cleaned conditions and agglomeration has not yet lead to wall deposits
within stream 17.
 No mass transfer of water occurs, as all the BP moisture is bound.
 Separation within the A-201 gravity separator occurs so that only fines are
entrained in stream 21.
 Powder degradation to reduce size does not occur, thus the PSD remains the
same.

Explained in Chapter 3 Section 3.6, the BP ut = 10.1 m s-1. The stream 17 temperature
entering A-201 is 90.8 °C (Section 6.2.4). The airlift reduces this to 30 °C, requiring 29724 kg
h-1 air. This air to BP mass ratio (1.86) aligns with de Groot et al. (1995, p.80), which states a
value of up to 3 kg air (kg BP)-1. Table 6.11 states the overall stream balances.

Table 6.10: Stream table for A-201

 Stream ṁ

Component State 17 19 20 21

kg h-1 kg h-1 kg h-1 kg h-1

BP s 14643   14643  

BP H2O s 1373   1373  

Air g   29724   29724

Total solids 16017 0 16017 0

Total gases 0 29724 0 29724

Total 16017 29724 16017 29724

6.1.6 S-301

The sieve (Figure 6.7) separates the BP based on size, into that used for the DP (stream 22)
and that recycled to C-101 (stream 23). These masses are detailed in Table 6.11.

20
Sieve 23

S-301
22
Figure 6.7: S-301, used to control the size of the
DP.

Assumptions:
  The PSD of stream 20 ranges 180 – 2000 μm. Powder within the 90 th
percentile of the T-201 PSD ( >1400 μm) is separated in S-301 and recycled.
This represents 11.1 wt %.

Table 6.11: Stream table for S-301

Stream ṁ

Component State 20 22 23

kg h-1 kg h-1 kg h-1

BP s 14643 13018 1625

BP H2O s 1373 1221 152

Total 16017 14239 1778

Energy balance:

The cooling of the BP in A-201 is through heat transfer to the pressurised air stream, with the
configuration shown in Figure 6.14. Shown in Table 6.10, the required air ṁ = 29.7 x103 kg s-
1
. This has been calculated using the assumption that the heating of the air is proportional to
the ratio of the heat capacities for the BP and air stream.

Exit air temperature (stream 21)

The BP c p at the intermediate of the inlet and outlet temperatures, 91 and 30 °C, is 1.38 kJ kg -
1
°C-1 (Appendix G.1). That of air is estimated at c p = 1.005 kJ kg-1 °C-1. This gives a ratio
(air: BP) of 0.73. Using the temperature change of 61 °C for the powder, the air temperature
change is thus 45 °C.

Air mass flow rate (streams 19 and 21)

The cooling of the BP in A-201 releases 1344.3 kJ h-1:

kg kJ kJ
Q̇=16017 ×1.38 ×61=1348.3∗10 3
h kg ℃ h
 kJ
1348.3∗103
h kg
ṁ air = =29.7
kJ h
1.005 × 45 ℃
kg ℃

6.2.5 Equipment pressure drop

Equipment has not yet been designed for the plant, and thus dimensions are not known.
Consequently, the following pressure drop ( ∆ p) values (Table 6.21) are approximations
based on general industry standards, literature and assumptions.

Table 6.21: Assumed pressure drops for the spray dryer, airlift and cyclone units

∆p
Unit Assumptions and explanation
bar
The slurry is pressurised (P-202) to 80 bar.
79
T-201 T-201 operates at 1.01 bar, approximately 1.0 x10 -3 bar under
atmospheric pressure (de Groot et al., 1995, p.70)
The pressure drop for vertical pneumatic conveying systems
with a fluid velocity of 15 m s-1 (Kovacs and Varadi, 1998).
A-201 0.55
The fan at the top of A-201 returns air back to atmospheric
pressure.
Above this value for a dry cyclone, the efficiency increase is
outweighed by the cost of a lower flow rate.
D-201 0.015
Below ∆ p = 0.005 bar, product recovery is not sufficient
(IEEE, 2019)

6.2.7 Fan power

The power required of each fan included in Figure 6.10 was calculated using Eq.7
(Engineering ToolBox, 2003). This assumes 100 % efficiency.

W =V̇ ∆ p Eq. 6.7

Where W is work, in W; V̇ is volumetric flow rate of the fluid at the fan output in m 3 s-1 and
∆ p is the pressure difference between the input and output in Pa.
Table 6.24 lists the fan power requirements. B-201 and B-202 both pressurise air from
atmospheric pressure (101325 Pa) to 107000 Pa. B-203 induces air from the airlift (46325
Pa).

Table 6.24: Fan power,

calculated from the volume of
air and pressure increase.
 V̇ ∆p W
Fan
m3 s-1 Pa kW

201 3.3 5675 19

202 20.0 5675 113

203 8.1 55000 445

:Refrnces should help

1) Coulson and Richardson. 2005. Chemical engineering design. Vol. 6. [Online].

[Accessed 22 feb 2020]. Available from: file:///C:/Users/hp/Desktop/[Coulson%20&
%20Richardson's%20Chemical%20Engineering]%20R%20K%20Sinnott%20-
%20Coulson%20Richardson%20s%20Chemical%20Engineering%20Chemical
%20Engineering%20Design%20Volume%206(2005,%20Butterworth-Heinemann).pdf
2) Pubchem. 2019. [Online]. [Accessed 20 feb 2020]. Available from:
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
3) pipeline design consideration and standards. 2015. [Online]. [Accessed 1 March

2020]. Available from:

https://petrowiki.org/Pipeline_design_consideration_and_standards#Wall_thicknes

s_calculations_-_using_B31.3_Code

https://app.knovel.com/web/index.v Knovel engineering technical )4