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05 Introduction chapter 1

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1 Introduction
Particle technology may be described as being the study of materials
dispersed within a continuous fluid. The particles may be solid, but
they can also be oil droplets in water, water droplets in air, etc. So, by
a particle we mean any dispersed material within a fluid. In many
cases deformable particles have a slightly different behaviour to rigid
ones, but the starting point for the description of deformable particles
is that of the rigid, and simpler, case. Hence, particle technology
includes the understanding of raindrops, oil emulsions, powders,
slurries, etc., and just about every industrial process uses the subject
at some stage. For example, in petrol production the catalytic
cracking of petroleum is achieved in fluidised beds of catalyst
particles (Chapter 7). An understanding of fluidisation relies upon
knowledge of particle characterisation and fluid flow through porous
media (Chapters 2 and 3). The petroleum processing is performed in
the vapour phase, not the liquid, hence the fluidised beds require
appropriate gas cleaning equipment for recycling and retention of the
catalyst particles (Chapter 14). The catalyst is stored and conveyed
into the system (Chapters 10 and 9) and, of course, due care must be
exercised over powder hazards (Chapter 15). So, even in the case of
an obviously liquid product, petroleum spirit, we encounter a
significant proportion of material covered in this book.
An even greater reliance on particle technology is provided by the
increasing trend towards high value batch processing in the chemical The Reynolds number
and pharmaceutical industries. A prime example is the production of Is a measure of the amount
a tablet. In many cases a reactant is provided in a solid form and of turbulence within a
product recovery involves nucleation and then crystallization of the system. It is numerically
the ratio of the inertial to
product. These two processes are not covered here, but the interested
viscous forces. Flow
reader is directed towards other works [J.W. Mullen, 1997,
Reynolds number for a
Crystallization, Butterworth-Heinemann, 3rd edition; R.J. Davey and fluid through a circular
J. Garside, 2001, From molecules to crystallizers, Oxford Chemistry pipe is:
Primers, No. 86]. Most of the remaining aspects of product recovery duρ
are covered in this work. The crystals may be settled, to increase the Re =
µ
slurry concentration going on to a filter, or filtering centrifuge; the
see the Nomenclature for
resulting cake will need washing free of reaction products and
definitions. Values above
unreacted feed material and mechanically dried, to minimise the 2000 are usually taken to
amount of thermal energy required to complete the drying. After indicate very significant
thermal drying (not covered here), there is likely to be a need for turbulence.
product storage, crushing and classification, solid/solid mixing,
conveying and agglomeration for the purpose of forming the tablet.
Any one of these processes may be the cause of a process bottleneck,
or throughput limitation, and the intention of this book is to provide
a sound understanding of the underlying principles behind these
operations to enable reliable operation and appropriate decisions to
be drawn.
2 Introduction

1.1 Prerequisites and objectives

In common with most engineering subjects particle technology
requires a basic competence in calculus and algebraic manipulation.
A first course in fluid mechanics would also be helpful, as it will be
assumed that the reader is familiar with concepts such as Reynolds
number (see box), Bernoulli’s equation, Hagen–Poiseuille, Newton’s
All sizes in microns
law (F=ma), friction factor and flow regimes. Knowledge of very basic
fine sand: 20 to 200 statistics would be useful for a complete understanding of solid/solid
hair diameter: 100 mixing, but the essential elements are included in Chapter 12.
clouds/fog: 30 Likewise, the concepts of mean, median and mode are used when
red blood cells: 8 discussing particle size distributions.
silt: 2 to 20 The primary objective of this work is to provide a sound basis on
clays: <2 which the more interested reader can build. Particle technology is a
tobacco smoke: <1 very broad subject and there have been many very good books
bacteria: 0.2 to 40
describing specialised aspects of the subject published over the last
viruses <0.5
twenty years.

1.2 The micron

Most industrial processing is performed on small particles with a
diameter typically in the range of 10−6 to 10−3 m; i.e. 1 to 1000 microns
or µm. The box provides some sizes, i.e. particle diameters, of
commonly encountered materials. You will become very familiar
with working in a length scale of microns in particle technology.
However, there are often times when the centimetre, gram, second
(cgs) system of units may be easier to apply.

1.3 Sampling
Processing is usually performed on small particles contained in bags,
drums, 1 tonne Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBC) or trucks.
Fig. 1.1 A grab sample Analysis for particle size, and other characteristics, usually requires
only a few grams. The most convenient method of obtaining a sample
of a few grams is to take a grab sample from the bulk, often scooping
the few grams off the top of the pile, or sack, see Figure 1.1. However,
segregation during particle motion is very common; examples include
the tendency for larger particles to rise to the top in breakfast cereals
such as muesli – and finer particles to fall between the gaps to the
bottom of the packet. Hence, a simple grab sample is rarely adequate
for a reliable analysis. The absence of a truly representative sample
invalidates any further work on the particles, be it laboratory tests for
some process (i.e. unit operation) or for particle size analysis and
characterisation.
When sampling from a suspension the viscous nature of the fluid
may assist in representative sampling; e.g. particles settle slower so
that stirring is often effective in suspending the particles for an
adequate time to obtain a good sample. However, at low
Fig. 1.2 A chute riffler concentrations the hindering (Chapter 6) effect of other particles is
not strong and vigorous stirring can lead to centrifugal separation
 Fundamentals of Particle Technology 3

(Chapter 8). In air, or any gaseous medium, motion can help the
segregation of particles by differences in size, density, moment of
rotational inertia, coefficient of restitution, etc. Hence, sampling of
free flowing particles should be performed according to accepted
standards (BS 3406) and using well-known techniques such as:
sample cutters, cone and quartering (25 kg solids and above), chute
riffles (50 kg solids down to 25 g), see Figure 1.2, spinning riffler (1
kg down to 25 g), see Figure 1.3. Ultimately, a scoop, or grab, sample
from the suitably reduced mass of powder will be required for use in
an instrument if, as is usual, 25 g is still too much powder to be used.
When sampling a dilute stream of powder entrained in a gas stream,
isokinetic sampling is often recommended; i.e. equal fluid velocities in
the bulk flow and within the sample probe. Isokinetic sampling is
discussed in greater detail below. Fig. 1.3 Spinning riffler with
A sample cutter is used to take a sample from a flowing stream of vibratory feeder from hopper
powder, such as on a conveyer belt. At a transfer station, from one belt
to another, the powder will be dropped from the first belt on to the
second, and the sample cutter will intermittently move into the
falling powder to remove a sample. It is important that the cutter
removes a sample across the entire width of the falling powder, or
width of the belt, because segregation during transit may result in
particles of a certain size preferentially positioned on the belt.
Cone and quartering is a technique used extensively within the
minerals industries for coarse sized material up to several centimetres
in diameter, to obtain a more tractable sample size, and is often
applied before riffling. The entire contents of the container, or bag, to
be sampled are discharged on to a clean flat surface, which could be a
swept floor. The material is then made into a cone by shovelling
material from the sides to the centre to form a cone. The cone is
usually then flattened to minimise the likelihood of pushing material
at the top in any one direction. It is common for the larger particles to
roll to the periphery of the cone and the finer ones to stay near the
centre. However, so long as the cone is made evenly there should be
an equal distribution of larger particles all around the periphery of
the cone, with no bias towards any position. Thus, quartering the
heap by dividing it into four roughly equal portions should provide
samples representative of the original material. It is usual to then take
two quarters at opposite sides of the heap and remove them from the
sample. The remaining two form the sample and the process can be
repeated to reduce further the overall sample size. A similar
technique can be applied to smaller amounts of finer particles, subject
to adequate safety – health and environment considerations, coned
and quartered on a bench, but the process is operator dependent and
it is unlikely that a sample would be as representative as one
provided by the other techniques described above.
When sampling airborne particles from flow within ducts it is
important that the flow entering the sample filter is the same as that Fig. 1.4 Isokinetic sampling
in the duct, or pipe, see Figure 1.4. This is to prevent particles from a duct or pipe
 4 Introduction

inertially separating at the entrance to the sample pipe, see Chapter

14 for details on inertial separation. If particles do inertially separate
the concentration in the sample tube will not be the same as within
the duct and any further analysis will be in error. Another important
factor evident on the illustration of isokinetic sampling is the lack of
sharp changes in direction between the sample entrance and the
sample filter. If a sharp direction change occurs the particles may
again separate from the gas flow by their inertia, leading to
deposition within the tube and a lower than true concentration of
dust found on the sample filter. It is easier to avoid sharp direction
changes in a three dimensional structure than can be represented on a
two dimensional illustration, such as Figure 1.4. Thus, it need not be
necessary to position a sample tapping just up-stream of a bend.
However, it is important that a sample stream should not be placed
just downstream of a bend. Most dust sample systems have a pump
and valve to control the flow entering the sample tube to ensure
isokinetic conditions and it may be possible to use a timer; whereby
the sampling is active for a fixed time, which corresponds to a fixed
volume of gas at a given flow rate. The particles deposited on the
sample filter may be weighed and they may be washed off the filter
and counted. This provides a concentration of dust particles within
the duct and a size distribution. However, it is important to
adequately disperse the dust sample after it has been washed off the
sample filter. This may require some practice with differing types of
chemical dispersing agents. Alternatively, microscope counting of the
test filter may be adequate, in the dry state, if the concentration of
particles is very low.
In some instances, two filters may be used in the sample holder:
one directly after the other. Thus, provided no particles are present
on the second filter and the masses of each filter were carefully
recorded before use, it is possible to weigh both filters and to deduce
the overall concentration of dust by the difference in mass between
the filter which acted on the sampled dust and the second filter which
should remain clean – after having corrected for any initial difference
in mass of the two filters. By placing both filters in-line any difference
in mass due to humidity, or similar, effects should be cancelled out.
Isokinetic sampling is important in gas streams, but not so
relevant to liquid streams because of the greater viscosity of the fluid
medium and the lower density difference between the particle and
fluid. Hence, particles are not so likely to separate inertially in liquid
systems. However, considerable care still needs to be exercised in
deciding where to withdraw samples from liquid systems, to ensure
that a representative sample is taken for analysis. Without a
representative sample the results from even the most expensive
particle characterisation techniques will not represent the particle
dispersion properties adequately.

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