Quantitative Engineering Approach to Particle and Particulate System Design

Particle and particulate systems are very important to a wide range of industries including pharmaceutical, food, detergents and consumer goods, specialty chemicals manufacturing, minerals and metals processing. Particle/particulate system formation processes need to be well understood at different levels in order to control these processes. My recent research is focused on granulation at both particle and process levels. In conventional granulators, the rate processes (nucleation, consolidation and growth, and breakage) take place simultaneously, which makes it difficult to control the process. At process level, our aim is to develop a new process (regime separated granulation) where each rate process takes place in separate equipment so that process control is easier, and tight control on product properties is possible. In the proposed regime separated granulation process, nucleation is the major process that determines the shape and size of the granules. Therefore, the interaction between the liquid drops and powder upon the first impact is also investigated (particle level). The study at the particle level aims developing a model to predict the granule shape and size based on particle and liquid properties, and process conditions.