On two-compartment population balance modeling of spray fluidized bed agglomeration

• Population balance modeling of two compartment spray fluidized bed agglomeration is presented.
• Numerical technique is developed for solving the proposed two-compartment model.
• Inverse technique for extracting the rate constant of two-compartment model is established.
• Effect of process parameters on two compartment model is thoroughly investigated.

The present work focuses on the modeling and analysis of a spray fluidized bed granulation (SFBG) process based upon the concept that particles are communicating between the two compartments at some steady state mass flow rate. A numerical technique for solving the proposed two-compartment model (2CM) is developed and validated against some newly derived analytical solutions. Moreover, the inverse technique for extracting the rate constant of one-compartment model (1CM) is extended to 2CM. A correlation of aggregation rate constant of 2CM with the rate constant of conventional 1CM under some restrictions is investigated and it is found that the 1CM cannot be used, in general, to predict results of 2CM. Furthermore, it is observed that the existence of two zones in SFBG is responsible to certain extent for time dependent behaviour of aggregation rate constant. Finally, influence of compartment sizes and particles residence times on particle size distribution is investigated.