Control of Particle Size and Porosity in Continuous Fluidized-Bed Layering Granulation Processes

Particle formulation processes such as continuous fluidized‐bed layering granulation (FBLG) are widely applied in chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Particle size and particle porosity are important product properties in FBLG. In this paper, a new concept is presented for the simultaneous control of both properties. The new concept allows stable process operation, automatic adjustment of the desired product properties, and rejection of unforseen disturbances

Multi-rate data fusion for state and parameter estimation in (Bio-)chemical process engineering

For efficient operation, modern control approaches for biochemical process engineering require information on the states of the process such as temperature, humidity or chemical composition. Those measurement are gathered from a set of sensors which differ with respect to sampling rates and measurement quality. Furthermore, for biochemical processes in particular, analysis of physical samples is necessary, e.g., to infer cellular composition resulting in delayed information. As an alternative for the use of this delayed measurement for control, so-called soft-sensor approaches can be used to fuse delayed multirate measurements with the help of a mathematical process model and provide information on the current state of the process. In this manuscript we present a complete methodology based on cascaded unscented Kalman filters for state estimation from delayed and multi-rate measurements. The approach is demonstrated for two examples, an exothermic chemical reactor and a recently developed model for biopolymer production. The results indicate that the the current state of the systems can be accurately reconstructed and therefore represent a promising tool for further application in advanced model-based control not only of the considered processes but also of related processes

Investigation of spray agglomeration process in continuously operated horizontal fluidized bed

[EN] Spray fluidized bed agglomeration is an important process in particle formation and is widely used in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry. In this study a continuously operated horizontal fluidized bed is employed to obtain a continuous agglomeration process. It is conducted with glass beads (dst=200 µm) and water-based binder hydroxy-propyl-methyl-cellulose (HPMC) sprayed by three top nozzles. The steady state is reached and samples are taken periodically and analyzed. The influence of fluidization air temperature and configurations of internal weirs are studied.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of this work by the China Scholarship Council (NO. 201608130097).Du, J.; Bück, A.; Tsotsas, E. (2018). Investigation of spray agglomeration process in continuously operated horizontal fluidized bed. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1855-1862. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.7809OCS1855186