Granulação

Chemical Engineering Science 60 (2005) 3969 – 3992 www.elsevier.com/locate/ces

Breakage in granulation: A review
G.K. Reynolds, J.S. Fu, Y.S. Cheong, M.J. Hounslow, A.D. Salman∗
University of Sheffield, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK Available online 18 April 2005

Abstract The study of breakage in granulation is important from a process and from a product quality perspective. Breakage is considered an important rate process in granulation, and plays roles in granule homogeneity and strength. Understanding this rate process has important implications in the design and control of the granulation process. From a product perspective, the study of breakage has important implications for the subsequent processing, transport, handling and final use of granular products. Breakage behaviour of granules can be a strong signature of the consistency of properties between nominally identical granular products. This paper reviews the study of breakage from the process scale down to the single granule and sub-granule scale, discussing largely experimental results complemented with some modelling results. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Granule; Agglomerate; Granulation; Breakage; Strength; Review

1. Introduction The process of granulation is used in a wide range of industries, including mineral processing, agricultural products, detergents, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs and speciality chemicals. Typically, fine powders are agglomerated together to form larger particles, or granules. In wet granulation, for example, liquid is used to stick the constituent particles together. Granules generally have a variety of advantages over fine powders in that they flow well, pose less environmental hazards, and dissolve or disperse better. The process of granulation still remains relatively poorly understood. However, it is generally accepted that granulation is a combination of three rate processes, namely wetting and