Chapter Two

2. Transportation and storage of solids in bulks

2.1 Storage of solids
When huge amount of particulate solids of coarse material like
gravel, coal and sand are to be stored, the most economical
method is to store in large piles.
There are two types of storage
1. Outdoor storage
2. Confined storage
Outdoor storage: Coarse solid are stored outside in large piles,
when hundred or thousand of ton of material are involved.
Out storage can be affected by environmental problem such as
dusting or leaching of soluble material from the piles.
Dusting is control by covering the piles
Examples: Coal storage and Gravel storage
 Cont..
Confined storage: Solids that are valuable and can be affected by
the environment in out door piles are stored in Bins, Hopper and
Silos.
These are the most versatile containers or equipments used to
store particulate solids.
All these containers are loaded from the top by some kind of
elevator and discharge is ordinarily from the bottom.
In storage containers the pressures felt at the bottom is not equal
to the weight of the particular mass.
1. Silo is a storage structure for storing bulk materials like storage of
grain, coal, cement, food products etc.
Silo is tall and relatively small in diameter which is used for bin
storage.
2. bin is typically much shorter than a silo, and is typically used for
holding dry matter such as concrete or grain.
Bins may be round or square.
A bin is not so tall and usually fairly wide.
 Cont.
3. Hopper is small vessel with a sloping bottom for a
temporary storage before feeding solids to a process.
It is filled at the top and Discharge is from the base.

Fig: mass flow in hoppers, bin and silo respectively

2.2 Transportation of solids
Conveyors and elevators are used to transport solids.
An industrial plant typically contains more than one type
of conveyor or elevator.
There are two main conveying (transporting)
mechanisms of particulate solids. These are:
a) Mechanical conveying
b) Pneumatic conveying
a) Mechanical conveying
Conveying is defined as the transportation of particulate
solids from place to place.
For ease of a process, mechanical conveyors are used
for both short and long distance to transport at a rate of
6000ton/hr of material up to 20km.
 Cont
There are three types of mechanical conveying.
1. Belt conveyor
2. Bucket elevator
3. Screw conveyor
1. Belt conveyor
Belt conveyors are the most popular type of mechanical
conveyor.
Is the most important way of transportation of
particulate solids among the mechanical conveying
equipments.
Mechanical conveyors use moving parts to transport
material.
It is used for conveying of waste from chemical plant. i.e
conveying of fuel and coal
 Cont
Belt conveyors can be used for almost any material.
They come in many sizes and can be inclined.
Typically they are connected in series to form a long belt
conveying system.
The main component of a belt conveyor is a continuous
belt. It can be made of polyester coated with rubber, plain
or coated canvas, woven wire, or a steel ribbon.
Belt conveyors are usually flat but in bulk solids handling
they are typically troughed to prevent material from
falling. Belt conveyors are driven at one end by a motor,
not shown, that rotates the drum to move the belt. At the
other end of the conveyor there is an idle drum.
Belt conveyors are typically used for transporting,
proportioning feeding, discharging, and metering bulk
solid materials.
 Cont
Advantages
Can be developed to convey
almost any type of solid
material.
Easy to adapt to plant
layout.
Disadvantages
Cannot transport
anything at
temperatures greater
than 120 0C.
Small scale experiments
needed to determine
operating parameters.
 Cont
2. Bucket elevator
In which particles carried up ward in buckets
attached to a continuously moving vertical belt
which passes over a derived roller at the top end
and is mainly used for lifting solids vertically
upward.
Bucket elevators are usually used when there is
not enough space for a horizontal conveyor.
Bucket elevators consist of buckets mounted on a
single or double chain.
 Cont
The buckets are loaded at the bottom of the
apparatus and dumped through a chute at a
higher level.
From the chute, the materials are usually loaded
on a conveyor or stored in a silo.
 Cont
Advantages Disadvantages
Can operate at speeds Buckets undergo wear
of about 1.5 m/s. and tear.
Can handle large No universally accepted
capacities of material in design.
a short time.
 3. Screw conveyor
Screw conveyors are the simplest and cheapest for
transfer of materials at rates of up to 40 ton/hr over
distances of up to 65 ft.
Screw conveyors are flexible; depending on their
diameter, they can be curved to some extent.
Screw conveyors consist of a special heat-treated and
tempered carbon or stainless steel spiral that rotates
with an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene
(UHMWPE) food-grade tube.
The transport of material in a screw conveyor occurs
by the turning of a helix screw in a trough casing.
The particles should be smaller than the screw pitch.
The screws can have constant, variable, or tapered
pitch.
 Cont
Screws with round cross sections are flexible and
strong, and screws with flat cross-sections are
more suited for high velocity applications.
The trough casing can be round, rectangular, or U-
shaped.
 Cont.
Advantages Disadvantages
Closed tube prevents Particles must be smaller
product contamination than the pitch
Inexpensive to purchase Abrasive materials will most
and operate likely cause wear
Flexible conveyors can be Small scale experiments
routed around obstacles
needed to determine
Product handled gently
operating parameters
Product is usually very
accurate and highly Need to run full of products
repeatable batches are
possible
Conveyor can be easily
emptied at the end of a
batch operation
 b) Pneumatic conveying
Are non-Mechanical Conveyors
Is used to transport huge amount of particulate
solid through a gas stream (air).
Instead of using moving parts to convey material,
gas flow is used to transport materials horizontally,
vertically, or on an incline.
The two types of pneumatic conveyors are dense
phase and dilute phase.
In dense phase pneumatic conveying the particle
concentration is very high. Dilute phase pneumatic
conveying has a small solid concentration.
 Cont
In dense phase pneumatic conveying, the material is
first placed in a hopper. The hopper feeds the
material into a dense phase transmitter, which mixes
the feed with a gas, usually air. The material travels
by plug flow to its destination.
In dilute phase conveying, the material is fed into an
airlock feeder. The solid material is suspended into
air at a ratio of about 3 to 5 kilograms of feed to 1
kilogram of air. The material is then conveyed as a
suspension along the pipe line. Throughout the
entire process air penetrates through the feed
stream. If chemical reactions with air are a concern,
other gases can be used.
 Cont..
Advantages Disadvantages
No dust contamination Particles must be dry
Flow direction can be Possibility of product
varied breakage
Low maintenance costs Wear and tear on the
Can handle multiple pipes
products with one High cost compared to
system other systems
Virtually no limitation in High amounts of
capacity, product type, filtration required
distance, or routing
 Questions
1. What is pneumatic conveying and how does it transfer
solids?
Pneumatic conveying is a technology that enables the
transfer of solids in a closed system. It provides for the
solids to be mixed into a stream of gas, and uses
pressure and/or vacuum to convey the gas stream with
the entrained solids. The solids : gas mixing ratio, and
associated flow rates and pressures are monitored and
controlled in order to effectively transport the solids
from their primary source (usually some type of
container) to a secondary location (such a reactor or
other piece of process related equipment). The solids
are then separated from the gas stream by a dust
collection system or filter element, so it is typically one
of the major design points of this type of technology.
 Cont.
2. Is pneumatic conveying better than mechanical conveying?
There are many advantages to a pneumatic conveying system over mechanical
conveying. A pneumatic transfer system has a relatively simple design that
transfers material through an enclosed hose or pipe that can be routed around
things in the path between the source equipment and the receiving unit. This
arrangement provides the flexibility needed to integrate the system into an
existing process that may require multiple directional changes. This is also
helpful when space is an issue. Add in the facts that a pneumatic conveyor is a
closed system with few moving parts, and you can begin to see the value of this
technology over mechanical transfer systems.
But before you have yourself sold on pneumatic transfer, there are some
disadvantages and other facts that need to be taken into
consideration. Pneumatic transfer typically requires more energy to operate
than a mechanical conveyor of similar capacity. This required energy input can
make the system more expensive to operate. Additionally, a pneumatic
conveying system requires a dust collection or air filter unit. There are also
some cases where the material being transferred is too large in particle size, or
bulk density or is extremely sticky, which could cause possible blockage in a
pneumatic systems transfer line. For these reasons, mechanical conveying
systems can sometimes be more desirable.
 Cont..
3. What are the Advantages of a Pneumatic Conveying System
Over a Mechanical Conveying System?
Lets start by looking at mechanical conveying systems. A
conventional mechanical conveying system runs in a straight
line, with minimal directional changes, and each directional
change typically requires its own motor and drive. The
mechanical conveying system may be open rather than
enclosed, potentially generating dust. It also has a relatively
large number of moving parts, which usually require frequent
maintenance. The system also tends to take up a lot of valuable
real estate in a plant.
On the other hand, a pneumatic conveying system uses a
simple, small-diameter pipeline to transfer material. The
pipeline can be arranged with bends to fit around existing
equipment, giving the system more layout flexibility, and the
system also has a relatively small footprint. The system is
totally enclosed and typically has few moving parts.
 Hydraulic Transport
A method of displacing solid materials by a
stream of water.
Hydraulic transport is used in moving earth or
rock by hydro-mechanized means, in building
earth structures (such as dams or dikes), in
removing slag and ashes from large boiler rooms,
in transporting mineral products, in removing
waste products in ore concentration processes,
and in transporting various materials (such as
wood chips, paper pulp, and raw materials used
in the manufacture of sugar and alcohol).
 Cont..
Hydraulic transport systems are either pressurized or non-
pressurized. In non-pressurized systems the hydraulic
mixture is moved on inclined troughs or chutes and
pipelines that are only partially filled. In this case the
pressure on the free surface of the hydraulic mixture is
equal to the atmospheric pressure.
In pressurized systems the hydraulic mixture in the
pipelines is under an excess pressure. This excess pressure
is provided by pumps (boring pumps, coal suction pumps,
and the like). The pressure resulting from the difference in
altitudes between the beginning and the end of a pipeline
is sometimes sufficient for hydraulic transport. For
instance, when transporting rock into a mine shaft in order
to fill an excavated space.
Transportation of solids in cement
factory
 Chapter-three
size Reduction operations
1. What is the meaning of size reduction?
Size refers to physical Dimension of an
object. Reduction refers to decrement or the
process of decreasing the size.
Size reduction is the operation carried out for
reducing the size of bigger particles into
smaller one of desired size and shape with the
help of external forces.
Energy + Material = Size Reduction
 Objectives Of Size Reduction
In the materials processing industry, size reduction
is usually carried out in order to:
Increase the surface area because, in most reactions
involving solid particles, the rate of reactions is
directly proportional to the area of contact with a
second phase.
Break a material into very small particles in order to
separate the valuable amongst the two
constituents.
Achieve intimate mixing.
To dispose solid wastes easily .
To improve the handling characteristics.
To mix solid particle more intimately.
 Cont..
Advantages Disadvantages
Content uniformity
Drug degradation
Uniform flow
Contamination
Effective drying
Increases surface area or
viscosity
Uniform mixing and
drying
Improve rate of
absorption, Smaller the
particles greater is
absorption.
Improve dissolution rate.
 Cont.
Factors Affecting Choice of equipments for size
reduction
Mode of operation: batch/continuous
Capacity
Size of feed and product
Material properties
Integration with other unit operation : drying,
classification,
mixing, transportation, storage
 Cont..
Mechanism of size reduction
Impact particle concussion by a single rigid
force (hammer).
Compressionparticle disintegration by two
rigid forces (nutcracker).
Shear produced when the particle is
compressed between the edges of two hard
surfaces moving tangentially.
Attrition arising from particles scraping
against one another or against a rigid surface.
 Cont..
Factors affecting size reduction
Hardness: - It is a surface property of the material. It is
frequently confused with a property named strength. Thus,
it is possible for a material to be very hard, but if it is brittle
also then size reduction may present no special problems.
Material structure:- Some substances are homogeneous in
character. Mineral substances may have lines of weakness
along which the materials splits to form flake-like particles.
Abrasiveness:- Abrasiveness is a property of hard materials
(particularly those of mineral origin). It may limit the type
of machinery that can be used. During the grinding of
some very abrasive substances the final powder may be
contaminated with more than 0.1 percent of metal worn
from the grinding mill.
 Cont..
Softening temperature: During size reduction process
sometimes heat is generated which may cause some
substances to soften, and the temperature at which this
occurs can be important. Waxy substances, such as stearic
acid, or drugs containing oils or fats are examples that may be
affected.
Some methods can be used to overcome this like cooling the
mill, either by a water jacket or by passing a stream of air
through the equipment.
Moisture content: It is found that materials do not flow well if
they contain between about 5 and 50 per cent of moisture.
Under these conditions the material tends to cake together in
the form of balls. In general, grinding can be carried out
satisfactorily outside these limits.
Crushing strength: The power required for crushing is almost
directly proportional to the crushing strength of the material.
 Energy And Power Requirements In
Comminution
The cost of power is a major expense in crushing and
grinding, so the factors that control this cost are
important. During size reduction, the particles of feed
material are first distorted and strained.
Crushing efficiency: The ratio of the surface energy
created by crushing to the energy absorbed by the solid
is the crushing efficiency.
 Cont
The ratio of the energy absorbed to the energy input is
the mechanical efficiency. Then, if W is the energy input,

If m is the feed rate, the power required by the machine is

Cont
 Empirical Relationships
Rittinger's Law
A crushing law proposed by Rittinger in 1867 states that
the work required in crushing is proportional to the new
surface created.
crushing efficiency is constant and, for a given machine
and feed material,
If the sphericities of feed and product are equal and the
mechanical efficiency is constant, the various constants
can be combined into a single constant K, and Rittinger's
law written as:
 Kick's Law
In 1885 Kick proposed another "law," based on
stress analysis of plastic deformation within the
elastic limit, which states that the work required
for crushing a given mass of material is constant
for the same reduction ratio, that is, the ratio of
the initial particle size to the final particle size.
This leads to the relation:
 Bonds LAW
A somewhat more realistic method of estimating the
power required for crushing and grinding was proposed
by Bond in 1952. Bond postulated that the work
required to form particles of size D p from very large
feed is proportional to the square root of the surface-to-
volume ratio of the product.
 Work Index
work index Wi, is defined as the gross energy
requirement in KWh per ton of feed needed to
reduce a very large feed to such a size that 80
percent of the product passes a l00 micro
meter screen. This definition leads to a
relation between Kb and Wi.
 Example
1. What is the power required to crush 100 ton/h of
limestone if 80 percent of the feed passes a 2-in.
screen and 80 percent of the product a 1/8 in.
screen? Use work index of limestone=12.74Kwh/ton
solution
 Exercises
1. A feed with 80% by weight less than 3mm is crushed
to a product with 80% less than 1.5mm. The energy
consumption per kg of feed for this process is
125KJ/kg. This intermediate product is then further
crushed to produce a final product with size 80%
below 0.5mm. What energy input is required for this
second size reduction using
a) Rittingers law
b) Kicks law and
c) Bonds law
 Cont
2. A Raymond mill consumes 800kw in reducing 20 ton/h
of a material from the feed 1 size distribution shown
below to the product size distribution. It is found that a
new consignment of feed has a slightly different size
distribution; feed 2 below. Calculate the bond work
index of the material and estimate? The sizes used in
bonds law are defined as the size of screen through
which 80% of the material will pass. Hence, for the two
feeds and the product the values of D used in the
equation will be
D(m)
Feed-1 710
Product 140
Feed-2 840
 Cont..
3. A crusher reducing limestone with a crushing
constant of 70 J.mm/kg from 6 mm diameter
average size to 0.1 mm diameter average size
requires 9 kW. The same machine is used to crush
dolomite at the same input from 6 mm diameter
average size to a product consisting of 20 per cent
with an average diameter of 0.25 mm. Estimate the
power required, assuming that the crushing
constant of the dolomite is 100J.mm/kg and that
crushing follows Rittingers Law.
 Size Reduction Equipment
Crusher
Crushers are classified according to the stage of crushing which
they accomplish, such as:
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
A primary crusher receives the particles directly from a quarry
after blasting, and produces the first reduction in size.
The output of the primary crusher is fed to a secondary crusher,
which further reduces the particles size. Some of the particles
may pass through four or more crushers before it is reduced to the
desired size.
The degree of breakage is spread over several stages as a means
of closely controlling product size and limiting waste material.
 Cont..
As particles passes through a crusher, the reduction in
size may be expressed as reduction ratio.
The reduction ratio is the ratio of crusher feed size to
product size.
The sizes are usually defined as the 80% passing size of
the cumulative size distribution.
Crushers are also classified by their method of
mechanically transmitted fracturing energy to the large
particles.
Jaw, gyratory, and roll crushers work by applying
compressive force.
Impact crushers such as single rotor and hammer mill
apply high-speed impact force to accomplish fracturing
 Jaw Crusher
Jaw crushers operate by allowing large particles to flow
into the space between two jaws, one of which is
stationary while the other is movable .
The distance between the jaws diminishes as the
particle travels downward under the effect of gravity
and the motion of the movable jaw, until the particles
ultimately passes through the lower opening
Jaw crushers are usually designed with the toggle as the
weakest part. The toggle will break if the machine
encounters an un-crushable object or is subjected to
overload. This limits damage to the crusher.
In selecting a jaw crusher, consideration must be given
to the size of the feed stone.
Cont
 Roll Crushers
Roll crushers are used for producing additional
reductions in the sizes of particles after the output of a
quarry has been subjected to one or more stages of
prior crushing.
A roll crusher consists of a heavy cast-iron frame
equipped with either one or more hard-steel rolls, each
mounted on a separate horizontal shaft.
The maximum size of material that may be fed to a roll
crusher is directly proportional to the diameter of the
rolls.
If the feed contains particles that are too large, the rolls
will not grip the material and pull it through the crusher.
Cont
 Capacity of Roll Crusher
The capacity of a roll crusher will vary with:
The kind of particles
The size of feed
The size of the finished product
The width of rolls
The speed at which the rolls rotate
The extent to which the stone is fed uniformly
into the crusher.
 Hammer Mill
What is a Hammer Mill?
A hammer mill is an intermediate crusher that can grind,
pulverize, and crush a wide range of materials. This rock crusher
machine employs a rain of hammer blows to shatter and
disintegrate the material.
The hammer mill, which is the most widely used impact
crusher, may be used for primary or secondary crushing. The
basic parts of a unit include a housing frame, a horizontal shaft
extending through the housing, a number of arms and
hammers attached to a spool which is mounted on the shaft,
one or more manganese-steel or other hard-steel breaker
plates, and a series of grate bars whose spacing may be
adjusted to regulate the width of openings through which the
crushed stone flows.
Advantages: Ease of cleaning, Minimum scale-up problems
Disadvantages: Clogging of screen, heat build up on milling,
Mill and screen wear
Cont..
 2. Ball Mill
Fine crusher (Feed size: 1-5 mm. Product size: <0.2 mm)
A rod mill is a circular steel shell that is lined on the inside with a
hard wearing surface.
Rod mill is equipped with a suitable support arrangement at
each end and a driving gear at one end. It is operated with its
axis in a horizontal position. The rod mill is charged with steel
rods, whose lengths are slightly less than the length of the mill.
A ball mill is similar to a rod mill but it uses steel balls instead of
rods to supply the impact necessary to grind the stone.
Ball mills will produce fine material with smaller grain sizes than
those produced by a rod mill.
Mechanism of size reduction: impaction and compression
Advantages: wet or dry milling, continuous, abrasive material
can be milled
Disadvantages: long milling time, tedious cleaning, high power
consumption
Cont..