Design and Development of Compact Equipment for the Grading of Material Composed of Dry Micro Size Particles.

Solid-Solid micro particle separation from a carrying flow is a widely used industrial technique, various types of equipment are available in the market which facilitates the separation of solidsolid mixtures. This project aims to develop compact equipment that can be placed and used in a lab to per

Project Title

Design and Development of Compact Equipment for the Grading of Material Composed of Dry Micro Size Particles.

Project Area of Specialization

Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary

Solid-Solid micro particle separation from a carrying flow is a widely used industrial technique, various types of equipment are available in the market which facilitates the separation of solidsolid mixtures. This project aims to develop compact equipment that can be placed and used in a lab to perform solid-solid micro particle separation. Also, it has the potential to be replicated on a commercial scale to fulfill the need of relevant industries. After going through a literature review involving different micro particle separation devices, it is found that Vibratory Sifters are used worldwide on a laboratory scale but it involves several drawbacks like, it is a non-continuous process of separation as well as it involves the use of sieves which gets clogged and needs to be cleaned regularly. On the other hand, a cyclone separator is a particle separation apparatus that uses centrifugal force to sort particles based on their size. They are better than the devices which involve sieves for the separation since they are simple, continuous, and economical to use. The design of the equipment consists of two cyclone separators (Inverse and Conventional in series). The inverse cyclone separates the particles according to the size while the conventional is used to separate the fine particles from the airflow. In order to perform the experimentation kaolin clay was used as the input feed, and the aim is to separate particles having size < 89 microns. Initially, our design involves a single conventional separator and a prototype was constructed using cardboard but it turned out to be a failure. After the series of trials, an inverse cyclone was added to our design to increase the separated amount of the sample, and then the third prototype was constructed. However, one drawback in our final prototype is the losses which will be minimized after some design refinements. After the finalization of the design, a CAD model will be designed before the fabrication, and CFD will also be performed to observe the virtual behavior of the fluid. Lastly, trial and testing will be carried out repeatedly to check whether it is working on optimum outcomes or not.

Project Objectives

The grain size of Kaolin Clay used in concrete making should be at most 149 µm and the optimal size used is 88 µm. The proposed device will extract the fine Kaolin clay (<88 µm) from the Kaolin clay sample. The equipment should provide our desired sampled clay at a rate of at least 800g per hour. The equipment will be economical as compared to the international market. Also, it will be fully automated since it will include programmable sensors that detect the particle size and automatically calculate the volumetric flow rate of the fluid, percentage composition, etc.

Project Implementation Method

CHEMICAL AND PETROCHEMICAL PROCESSES:
Cyclone separators are used as dust collector for dryer and cooler processes such as hot gas cleaning and product recuperation separation in spray dryers.
Recuperation of particulate in maleic anhydride process reactors.
Ultra-fine gas cleaning of fluid catalytic cracking (FCCU) regenerator gases.

INDUSTRIAL, METALLURGICAL AND POWER GENERATION

Cyclone separators are used as dust collector for metallurgical process mills, smelters and kilns fine particulate recovery.
Cyclone separation is used in fluidized bed combustors, hot gas cleaning in coal gasifier and activated carbon plants.
For particulate recovery in abrasive and hot gas streams.
Cyclone separator mechanism is used for NPK & DAP fertilizer dust collection in coolers & dryers.
Cyclone separators are used for reducing emissions in fluidized bed boilers.
For zinc dust recovery and extraction in galvanizing plants

FOOD & PHARMACEUTICAL

Cyclone separators are used for powder recovery in pharmaceutical cleaning processes.

For product restoration in milk powder, coffee and cereal plants.

CEMENT INDUSTRY

In cement manufacturing industries, cyclone separators are most commonly used equipment and are used in significant numbers to separate the fine particles from the coarse particles having high volumetric flow rates

Benefits of the Project

This project will significantly contribute to several laboratory experiments comprising of microparticle sampling due to the compact size of the proposed equipment. Previously, particle sampling in laboratories was done using Vibratory Sifters Screen Separators. It uses a different mesh of sieves to separate particles but it has several downsides like this separation process was a non-continuous process due to the fact that clogging of the sieve was a major issue found in high number mesh sieves. Either they need to be cleaned again and again to function properly or they are damaged by the grain sample and needed to be replaced thus increasing the cost of the equipment. Secondly, this equipment was not suitable for the separation of large quantities of material making the processing time-consuming. The designed equipment eliminates all these constraints making it a better choice over vibratory sieve separators and it will further be beneficial for the environment as a result of low microparticle emissions.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Separated material Flow Rate = ~1 Kg/Hr
Separated Particle Size =  <88 µm
 

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Others

Other Industries

Medical , Food , Manufacturing

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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