Chapter -2

COMMINUTION

Dr. P. Mondal
Department of Chemical Engineering
IIT Roorkee
 Comminution

Comminution is the generic term of size reduction

It is an important step in the processing of many solid materials

It is used to create particles of a certain size and shape, to increase
surface area available for chemical reaction and to break apart the
materials that are intimately in contact with each other

Size reduction of solids is an energy intensive and highly
inefficient process

Similarity of Comminution and chemical reactions, both require
critical energy before starting and time is important variable for
both cases

Design and scale-up of Comminution processes is usually based on
experience and testing

Comminution takes place through impact, compression, shear,
attrition (rubbing), cutting or tearing action
Impact - Particle concussion by a single rigid force
Compression - Particle disintegration by two rigid forces
Shear - Produced by fluid or by particle particle interaction
Attrition - Arising from particles scrapping against one another or against a
rigid surface
Cutting or tearing - Applicable for fibrous materials like wood asbestos

Impact
Compression

Example of size reduction;

Shear Attrition motion of charge in tumbling mill
Steps of comminution ( Industrial solids from 1 ft 200 mesh)
Coarse size reduction Feeds from 2 -96 inch
Intermediate size reduction 1-3 inch
Fine size reduction 0.25 0.5 inch

Factors affecting comminution

Properties of feed material handled
Hardness
Resistance to scratching, extent of wear caused on grinding media; measured by
Moh scale; soft material (Moh 1-3) like talk, gypsum; intermediate hardness material
(Moh 4-6) like limestone, magnesite, felsper, ilmenite; hard material (Moh 7 and
more) like diamond, saphire, quartz
Toughness
Impact resistance of the material; Inverse of friability or brittleness;
Crystallinity and cleavage
Planes in crystal along which breaking takes place is called cleavage plane;
Galena breaks into cubes, mica into flat scales, magnetite into rounded grains
Wood, asbestos etc. do not have cleavage planes and are torn or shredded
 Grindability index Measured by drop weight method or Hardgrove method
Moh's Hardness Scale
Hardn
Mineral Description
ess
1 Talc Fingernail scratches it easily.
2 Gypsum Fingernail scratches it.
3 Calcite Copper penny scratches it.
4 Fluorite Steel knife scratches it easily.
5 Apatite Steel knife scratches it.
6 Feldspar Steel knife does not scratch it easily, but scratches glass.
7 Quartz Hardest common mineral. It scratches steel and glass easily.
8 Topaz Harder than any common mineral.
9 Corundum It scratches Topaz.
10 Diamond It is the hardest of all minerals.

Mohs scale is strictly a relative scale, but that's all that anyone needs. In terms of absolute
hardness, diamond actually is 4 times harder than corundum and 6 times harder than topaz.
Because it isn't made for that kind of precision, the Mohs scale uses half-numbers for in-
between hardnesses. For instance, dolomite, which scratches calcite but not fluorite, has a
Mohs hardness of 3 or 3.5.
Moisture content
Moisture content more than 3-4 % (by weight) forms sticky or pasty mass and tends to clog
the machine
Moisture content below 3-4 % is considered desirable since it acts as a binding agent and
thus helps in preventing loss of fines
In wet grinding comminution is conducted in presence of large excess of water (50 % or
more)
Reduction ratio - Ratio of average size of feed to average size of product
Discharge of products
Free crushing The crushed product is discharged almost as soon as it is
produced
Choke feeding The crushed product is not quickly and freely due to
feeding through hopper which is kept filled of chocked
In some instance choke feeding results in economy of operation eliminating one or more
reducing stages because of the large quantity of fines produced
Recycling of over size materials
Closed circuit
Over size material is returned to crusher. It is economical of crushing power, which at best is
high, permits smaller unit per given tonnage, and produces a material with greater uniformity
of size

Open circuit

Type of machine used / energy efficiency

Machine is selected on the basis of particle size as well as particle properties
Disintegrators exert a tearing action and is used for reducing size of fibrous materials
Energy Requirement and Product Size Distribution

E/M = CR(Sp-SF) ; S is sp. Surface area

X1 = DF and X2 = Dp

Rittengers constant designates the new surface

created per unit mechanical energy absorbed by
the material being crushed
 = E/M
(Narayanan
= KR Bhattacharya)
 Determination of Rittingers constant

The slop of the Increase in surface of 100g of material vs. number of drops curve gives
Rittingers constant (Drop weight crusher is used)

Rittingers number of some solids When Sauter diameter is used in Rittingers

Equation

E/M = CR(Sp-SF) ; S is sp. Surface area

Is converted to

This law does not account for the mechanical losses

due to friction and inertia in the equipment

It is best applicable to coarse and intermediate size CR = KR

reductions
 Kicks law
Statement - Energy required to produce analogous changes of configuration
of geometrically similar bodies varies as the volumes or masses
of these bodies (It is applicable only to plastic deformation of solid not
for comminution
Modified Kicks law
 X1 = Dia of feed
X2 = Dia of product
E = Energy required per kg of material

Statement Work required for crushing a given quantity of material is

constant for a given reduction ratio irrespective of original size
 Bonds Third Law / Universal Law
Statement Total work useful in breakage that has been applied to a given
weight of homogenous broken material is inversely proportional to the
square root of the average size of product particles, directly proportional to the
length of crack tips formed and directly proportional to the new
surface created
 E=-[C/(N-1)]*[1/x2(N-1) - 1/x1(N-1)]
For N= 3/2
E = -[2C]*[1/x1/2 - 1/x1/2]
Bonds third law
Walker, Lewis, McAdams and Gilliland combined the three laws into the form of the above
differential equation
Bond Law is best for fine grinders/ intermediate as it includes the mechanical losses as well
 Work Index (Wi)
It is the gross energy (in kWh/tonne of feed) necessary to reduce a very large
feed to such a size that 80 % of product particles will pass through a 0.1 mm screen

Hence, Wi = CB/0.1 or CB= 0.1*Wi or CB= 0.3162Wi

Work index of some materials Correction on work index

Open circuit : 1.34* closed circuit
For Product size below 70
micron correction factor is
(10.3 + Dp)/(1.145Dp)

Taggart empirical correlation for estimating power consumption

P = C(RR)Q; P = Power consumption, kWs; RR = Reduction ratio; Q = Capacity of mill,
tonnes/hr; C = empirical constant 0.1 to 0.15
Solution

Cumulative mass fraction table

From above graph it is evident that :
Hence from Bonds Law
 Energy utilization in size reduction equipment

Energy is utilized in crusher in the following ways:

In producing elastic deformation of the particles before fracture
occurs
In producing inelastic deformation which results in size reduction
In causing elastic distortion of the equipment
In friction between particles and between particles and machine
In noise, heat and vibration in the plant
In friction losses in the plant itself
Hence, energy efficiency of crushing equipment can be defined as follows:

Crushing efficiency

Mechanical efficiency = (Power consumed while loaded power consumed

while unloaded) / Power consumed when unloaded

Over all efficiency = Mechanical efficiency * crushing efficiency

 Equipment for size reduction
Type of operation
Advantages of wet grinding

Flow diagram of Closed circuit

However, wear in the grinding medium will generally be
20 % greater grinding system

Classification of equipment (based on size of feed and product)

 Types of size reduction equipment
The principal types of size-reduction machines are as follows:

A. Crushers (coarse and fine)

Jaw crushers
Gyratory crushers
Crushing rolls

B. Grinders (intermediate and fine)

Hammer mills; impactors
Rolling-compression mills
Attrition mills
Tumbling mills

C. Ultrafine grinders
Hammer mills with internal classification
Fluid-energy mills
Agitated mills

D. Cutting machines
Knife cutters; dicers; slitters
Jaw Crusher

Working of Blake Jaw crusher

If F1 force on Pitman , F2 is force on movable jaw and is angle between toggle and
pitman, Then by force balance
Characteristics Uneven loading on the
machine, no clogging, some uncrushed rock in
product

Dodge Jaw Crusher

Characteristics More uniform and closely
sized product, clogging tendency and enormous
stress on machine
 Universal Jaw Crusher

Combines the principle of Blake and

Dodge Jaw Crushers
Pivot is slightly above the bottom end
of the movable jaw and therefore it
provides two strokes per revolution

Some terminologies

Angle of Nip Maximum permissible angle between the convergent faces of the reciprocating
crusher at the point of contact with the feed rock (normally around 30o)
Gape The maximum distance between crushing surfaces is called gape
Mouth and throat Feed opening at top and discharge opening at bottom
Set Distance between jaws at throat (open and closed set)
Throw of crusher The length of travel of movable jaw measured at the throat
Gyratory crusher
Similar to jaw crusher in operation
Capacity is around 2.5 times more than jaw
crusher for same gape, same feedstock and same
product size
According to taggart
if (T/G)<0.115 jaw crusher is preferable
If (T/G) > 0.115 Gyratory crusher is preferable
T = capacity in tonnes/hr
G = gape in inch
Empirical equn. Used for determining capacity of
jaw crusher
T = 93.0*(LS)
L = length of feed opening, cm
S = maximum width of discharge opening, cm
It is valid for gape of 10 60 cm
 Crushing rolls

Consists of two heavy

cylinders revolving towards
each other

Size reduction is relatively

small, product size is
typically 1/4th of feed size

Considerable variation in
product and feed size

Low initial cost

 Product size of crushing rolls

Dp = maximum dia. of product (min distance between

rolls)
FT = tangential force on particle
FN = normal force on particle
FR = resultant force on particle
An = angle of nip (value of angle A corresponding to FR
being horizontal)
A = angle between the tangents at the point of contact
of the particle Capacity of rolls

= Coef. of friction
 Hammer mill
One of the most versatile type of
comminution equipment
Can be used for brittle material like coal
and fibrous materials like bark and
leather
Hammers deliver heavy blows to the feed
rock driving it against a breaker plate
until it is fine enough to pass through the
openings between case bars at the
bottom of the mill constituting the screen
For wet materials, the cases or screens
are replaced by corrugated grinding
plates

T = capacity, kg/hr ; D = diameter of rotor, m

Capacity
L = length of rotor, m ; N = rpm of rotor
T = (KD2LN2)/(3.543(RR-1)) RR = reduction ratio
K = an empirical constant, 4.0 6.2
 Tumbling mills
Most extensively used as fine grinders

Grinding is accomplished due to tumbling action of grinding media

(steel ball, rod, ceramic pebbles etc.) over the feed rock

Tumbling mills are of three types

Rod
Ball
Autogenous
 Working of tumbling mills

Gravitational force

Critical speed occurs when

Or Cos = V2/Rg = (2RN)2/Rg(60)2

Hence, Cos = 0.001N2R or

At critical point = 0 When R = (D-d)/2

Rod Mills:
Rod mills are considered fine crushers or coarse grinders. They are preferred over fine
crushing machines when the ore is clayey or damp. When used, they are normally the first
stage in grinding after crushing. Rod mills use rods almost the same length of the mill
(within a couple cms) to crush the ore between. The rods must be almost the same length
as the mill so they remain parallel to the mill walls. Otherwise they could turn and get
jammed.
Normally wet grinding. Dry grinding should be avoided.
Feed as large as 50 mm. Product as fine as 300 micrometers
15-20:1 reduction ratio.
Shell length is 1.5-2.5 times its diameter. Length limited to 6.4 m since rods longer
than that would bend.

Rod diameters: 25mm to 150 mm

Run at 50 to 65% Nc for cascading rods. Many

run them at 80% Nc.
Mechanism of breakage ensures almost uniform
product size (grinding focuses on coarse particles).
Therefore, used in open circuit.
Ball Mills:
Ball mills are the choice for fine finishing. They have a length to diameter ratio of 1.5 to less
than 1. Some mills do have a length to diameter ratio of 3 to 5. But those are considered tube
mills.
Operated at 70%-80% Nc.
Rated by power, rather than capacity. 4MW-15MW
Used for fine grinding (~80% passing 6 mm feed). Used in closed circuit.
Grinding efficiency controlled by:
- Contact between ball and ore particle. Random event. Ensuring sufficient grind may
increase chances of overgrind. Therefore, operated in closed circuit whereby there is no
need to increase residence time of ore.
- Pulp density. Should be high so that the balls have a layer of ore (to reduce ball wear).
% solids by weight should range between 65-80%. For very fine grinding, viscosity should
not be too high as to hurt flow; lower pulp densities preferred.
-Surface area of medium (balls). Smaller the better. However, medium should be a good
mix of large (for larger particles) and small balls. Correct ball mix is usually arrived at after
experimentation in the plant.
-Ball weight , no. of balls
-Ball diameter
-Slope of mill, slope in crease capacity but coarse particle size
-Speed of rotation
Ball charge is about 40-50% of mill by vol. 40-50% of this is voids. Most efficient (power
consumption wise) at 50% ball charge. Higher ball charge results in higher required optimum
speed (cataracting reduces with increased ball charge as mill gets heavier).
Autogenous mills:
Can achieve size reductions from 25 cm to 75 microns in one stage.
Lower capital cost
Handles wet and sticky material well
Uses a combination of the ore itself and a reduced load of steel balls. When balls are
used, they are called Semi-Autogenous grinding (SAG) mills. Ball charge is usually 4-15%
of mill volume. Most effective when steel ball load is 6-10% mill volume.
Aspect ratio (Diameter:Length) ranges from 1:3 (South Africa, Scandinavia) to a high of
3:1 (US, Aust). Low aspect mills use more power/ton.

Breakage mechanism is mainly abrasion and

impact. Breakage occurs around grain/crystal
boundaries.
AG results smoother particles. Since they are
not contaminated with iron from steel balls, they
float better (faster and more selective) than with
non-AG.