Lars Frye

Chapter 28 A New Concept for Addressing Bulk Solids Attrition in Pneumatic Conveying

Publisher Summary Pneumatic conveying is applied successfully in industry to transport bulk solids. Because of advantages of flexibility in routing, dust-free transport or low maintenance costs, the number of bulk solids that are pneumatically conveyed has constantly increased ever since conveying was first applied on an industrial scale. Pneumatic conveying systems always consist of the same basic components. For establishing the gas flow inside the pipes, a differential pressure generation unit is needed. One of the most demanding tasks in pneumatic conveying is the technical realization of particle addition as well as the adjacent particle acceleration. Although pneumatic conveying has long been used to transport a large variety of bulk solids, the problem of product degradation because of attrition is still largely unresolved. It is shown that one reason for this is the multiscale nature of attrition processes. The success of pneumatic conveying results from its advantages over other transport systems, for example, mechanical conveyors. In pneumatic conveying, the products are transported in a closed system, which minimizes the danger of product contamination.