Studies on Parameter Optimization for Particle Growthin a Fluidized BedGranulator: Interval Halving Method

Effects of various process parameters such as amount of liquid binder, temperature, gas flow rate and weight of bed materials on the growth of particles in a Fluidized Bed Granulator are analysed. A comparative study is carried out for two bed materials (i.e. TiO2 and CaCO3) through experimentations. The result i.e. particle size of fluidized bed materials is correlated with the various process parameters. These correlations are observed to be satisfactory with both exponential and power trends but higher R2 value is observed with the exponential trend. The calculated values of the percentage of particle growth thus obtained through these developed correlations are compared with the experimental values for both the bed materials which show good agreements with each other. The process parameters are also optimised using Interval Halving method which indicates improvement in the performance of the fluidized bed granulator. MATLAB coding is also developed for the optimization of these correlations. Neither any local maximum nor any local minimum is observed with any of the system parameters thereby implying further the better applicability of these developed correlations over a wide range of parameters