Chemical Engineering Department

Mechanical unit operations (ChEg 3208)

Chapter Two: Size Reduction

Mustefa Kemal
Chemical Engineering Department
 Introduction

What is size reduction (Commination)?

• Size reduction is applied to all the ways in which
particles of solid are cut or broken into smaller
pieces.
• Size reduction is an important step in the
processing of many solid materials.
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 Cont’d
Why size reduction?
• In chemical process industry size reduction is
usually carried out in order to increase the
surface area
Highly dependent
on surface area
Rate of reaction
 Extraction rate
Ability of mixing
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Cont’d
• To meet the requirement concerning the
particle size and shape. (There may be some
standard regarding the size and shape)
• To permit the mechanical separation unwanted
ingredients from valuable substance.
(Separation of stone from valuable ores)
• For easier handling and for waste disposal.
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Mechanism of size reduction
• The reduction mechanism consists of deforming the solid
piece until it breaks or tears by applying diverse forces.
• Every solid material has specific true crystalline structure
i.e the atoms in the crystals are arranged in definite,
repeating geometric pattern
• There are a certain planes in the crystal called cleavage
planes along which breaking occurs when sufficient
pressure is applied on the material

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Cont’d
• The types of forces commonly used in
processing industries for size reduction are;
• Compressive
• Impact
• Attrition or shear and
• Cutting.

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Cont’d

Impact Compression

& Rubbing Cutting

Compression Rubbing (attrition)

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 Cont’d
• In size reduction operation, more than one type of force
acts, usually.
 Compressive forces used for coarse crushing of
hard materials.
 Impact forces for coarse, medium, and fine
grinding of materials.
 Shear or attrition forces are applied in fine
pulverization, to micrometer range.
 Cutting gives a definite particle size and shape.
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Cont’d
 Classification of size reduction equipment

Types of Forces Used in Size Reduction

Equipment

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Factors affecting size reduction

• The comminution process is affected by the

following variables
Material property
The size of feed and product

The way to carryout comminution

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 Cont’d
I) Material property
• Material properties affect the selection of mill type, but to a lesser
extent than feed and product particle size. The following material
properties may need to be considered when selecting a mill
 Hardness: measure of the resistance to abrasion is usually
measured on the Mohs’ scale
 Abrasiveness: This is linked closely to hardness and is
considered by some to be the most important factor in selection of
commercial mills.

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Cont’d
 Toughness: This is the property whereby the material resists the
propagation of cracks.
 Cohesivity/adhesivity: The properties whereby particles of material
stick together and to other surfaces. Cohesivity and adhesivity are
related to moisture content and particle size.
 Fibrous nature: Materials of a fibrous nature are a special case and
must be comminuted in shredders or cutters which are based on the
hammer mill design.
 Low melting point: The heat generated in a mill may be sufficient to
cause melting of such materials causing problems of increased
toughness and increased cohesivity and adhesivity.
 Other special properties: Materials which are thermally sensitive
and have a tendency to spontaneous combustion or high inflammability
must be ground using an inert carrier medium. Toxic or radioactive
materials must be ground using a carrier medium operating on a closed
circuit.
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 Cont’d
II) The size of feed and product
• The term reduction ratio can used for selecting the
appropriate comminution equipment.
• Reduction ratio (RR): is the ratio of the average size
of feed to the average size of product

• For coarse crushing RR is 3-7 and for fine grinders

RR>100
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Cont’d
III) The way to carryout comminution
• There are three ways
Free crushing
Choke feeding
Open circuit operation/closed circuit operation
Free crushing: If the product material is
continuously discharged almost almost as soon as it
is produced.
 The product may be removed by flow under
gravity
 Such unit will have large capacity and they
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 Cont’d

Choke feeding: if the crusher is equipped with a

feed hopper and kept filled so that it doesn’t freely
discharge the crushed product.
 Lower capacity but employed when large
quantity of fines is desired in the final product.

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 Cont’d
Closed/open circuit operation:
• No industrial comminution equipment can produce a
product that conforms exactly to the size range desired
• Therefore, it is preferable to send the product from size
reduction unit to size separation unit so that over size
material from separation unit can be recycled back to
the crusher for further processing and this is called
closed circuit operation.
• Products are more uniform size, more energy efficient,
additional cost of separation unit.

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 Cont’d
• Open circuit operation: If there is no size
separation unit and recycling of over size
material.
• Wide range of particle size as some particles pass
through quickly other stay for some time, higher
energy consumption, no additional cost for size
separation unit.

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Energy Requirements in size reduction
• Size reduction of solids is an energy intensive process

• 5% of electricity generated world wide is used in size

reduction however, the industrial scale size reduction
process is generally less than 1% efficient
• This tells as researchers must conduct research to
improve the efficiency of this reduction process
• A lot of researches were conducted the process
remained inefficient
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 Cont’d
• Theoretically the energy required to produce a
small change in the size of unit mass of material
expressed as;

where dE is the change in energy

dx is the change in size
k is constant
x is particle size
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Cont’d
• There are three well known postulates
predicating energy requirements for particle
size reduction.
Kick’s law

Ritinger’s law
Bond’s law

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Cont’d
Kick’s law
• State that the energy required for a given size
reduction was proportional to the size reduction ratio
irrespective of the original size.

where E = energy required for crushing M kg of

material
Kk = kick’s constant
Df = average (median) diameter for the feed
DP = average (median) diameter for the product

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 Cont’d
• The law has limitation since the energy is
dependent on only reduction ratio, it is obvious
that higher amount of energy is required for
reducing fine particles than larger one.
• Kick’s law is applicable with out much serious
for larger particle size (coarse crushing).

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Cont’d
Rittinger’s law
• States that the energy required for size reduction
is proportional to the new surface created.

since surface area and size of the particle are

inversely related

• Rittinger’s law better for fine grinding.

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 Cont’d
Bond’s law
• Bond considered that the work necessary for
reduction was inversely proportional to the square
root of the size produced.

• To apply bonds law we have to evaluate the bonds

constant kb which is evaluated by defining what is
called work index wi it is defined as the gross
energy necessary to reduce a very large feed to
such a size that 80% of product particles will pass
through a 0.1mm screen.
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Cont’d

Where

wi = work index

DPb= diameter of the product that 80% of product pass

through

DFb= diameter of the feed that 80% of feed pass through

• Bond’s law used for a variety of materials undergoing

coarse, medium, and fine size reduction.
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 Crushing Efficiency
• The energy efficiency of a crushing equipment can
be defined in two ways

• The power required can be calculated by

where

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 Example 1
A crusher is fed with a limestone having a particle size of
2cm median equivalent diameter and discharges a product
consisting of particles of 0.5cm median equivalent diameter.
The equipment operates at capacity of 1.2*104kg/h
consuming a power of 10hp. If the requirement of the
process demands a fine size of the product 0.4cm of median
equivalent diameter decreasing the capacity to 1.0*104kg/h
determine the theoretical power consumption under the new
condition assuming a) kick’s law b) Rittingers law
 Example 2
Quartz is fed at a rate of 25,000kg/h to a ball mill. The screen anaysis for
both feed and product streams are given in table below. If the total power
supplied to drive the mill is 75Kw, determine the energy efficiency of the
mill by using bond’s law (work index for quartz is 13.57kwh/tonne)

Screen size, mm Feed mass fraction Product mass fraction

-3.327+2.362 0.147 0
-2.362+1.651 0.211 0
-1.651+1.168 0.230 0
-1.168+0.833 0.186 0.098
-0.833+0.589 0.120 0.234
-0.589+0.417 0.076 0.277
-0.417+0.295 0.03 0.149
-0.295+0.208 0.004 0.101
-0.208+0.147 0 0.068
-0.147+0.104 0 0.044
-0.104 0 0.029