Chemical Engineering Department
Mechanical unit operations (ChEg 3208)
Chapter Two: Size Reduction
Mustefa Kemal
Chemical Engineering Department
Introduction
What is size reduction (Commination)?
• Size reduction is applied to all the ways in which
particles of solid are cut or broken into smaller
pieces.
• Size reduction is an important step in the
processing of many solid materials.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Why size reduction?
• In chemical process industry size reduction is
usually carried out in order to increase the
surface area
Highly dependent
on surface area
Rate of reaction
Extraction rate
Ability of mixing
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• To meet the requirement concerning the
particle size and shape. (There may be some
standard regarding the size and shape)
• To permit the mechanical separation unwanted
ingredients from valuable substance.
(Separation of stone from valuable ores)
• For easier handling and for waste disposal.
Chemical Engineering Department
Mechanism of size reduction
• The reduction mechanism consists of deforming the solid
piece until it breaks or tears by applying diverse forces.
• Every solid material has specific true crystalline structure
i.e the atoms in the crystals are arranged in definite,
repeating geometric pattern
• There are a certain planes in the crystal called cleavage
planes along which breaking occurs when sufficient
pressure is applied on the material
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• The types of forces commonly used in
processing industries for size reduction are;
• Compressive
• Impact
• Attrition or shear and
• Cutting.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Impact Compression
& Rubbing Cutting
Compression Rubbing (attrition)
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• In size reduction operation, more than one type of force
acts, usually.
Compressive forces used for coarse crushing of
hard materials.
Impact forces for coarse, medium, and fine
grinding of materials.
Shear or attrition forces are applied in fine
pulverization, to micrometer range.
Cutting gives a definite particle size and shape.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Classification of size reduction equipment
Types of Forces Used in Size Reduction
Equipment
Chemical Engineering Department
Factors affecting size reduction
• The comminution process is affected by the
following variables
Material property
The size of feed and product
The way to carryout comminution
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
I) Material property
• Material properties affect the selection of mill type, but to a lesser
extent than feed and product particle size. The following material
properties may need to be considered when selecting a mill
Hardness: measure of the resistance to abrasion is usually
measured on the Mohs’ scale
Abrasiveness: This is linked closely to hardness and is
considered by some to be the most important factor in selection of
commercial mills.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Toughness: This is the property whereby the material resists the
propagation of cracks.
Cohesivity/adhesivity: The properties whereby particles of material
stick together and to other surfaces. Cohesivity and adhesivity are
related to moisture content and particle size.
Fibrous nature: Materials of a fibrous nature are a special case and
must be comminuted in shredders or cutters which are based on the
hammer mill design.
Low melting point: The heat generated in a mill may be sufficient to
cause melting of such materials causing problems of increased
toughness and increased cohesivity and adhesivity.
Other special properties: Materials which are thermally sensitive
and have a tendency to spontaneous combustion or high inflammability
must be ground using an inert carrier medium. Toxic or radioactive
materials must be ground using a carrier medium operating on a closed
circuit.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
II) The size of feed and product
• The term reduction ratio can used for selecting the
appropriate comminution equipment.
• Reduction ratio (RR): is the ratio of the average size
of feed to the average size of product
• For coarse crushing RR is 3-7 and for fine grinders
RR>100
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
III) The way to carryout comminution
• There are three ways
Free crushing
Choke feeding
Open circuit operation/closed circuit operation
Free crushing: If the product material is
continuously discharged almost almost as soon as it
is produced.
The product may be removed by flow under
gravity
Such unit will have large capacity and they
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Choke feeding: if the crusher is equipped with a
feed hopper and kept filled so that it doesn’t freely
discharge the crushed product.
Lower capacity but employed when large
quantity of fines is desired in the final product.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Closed/open circuit operation:
• No industrial comminution equipment can produce a
product that conforms exactly to the size range desired
• Therefore, it is preferable to send the product from size
reduction unit to size separation unit so that over size
material from separation unit can be recycled back to
the crusher for further processing and this is called
closed circuit operation.
• Products are more uniform size, more energy efficient,
additional cost of separation unit.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• Open circuit operation: If there is no size
separation unit and recycling of over size
material.
• Wide range of particle size as some particles pass
through quickly other stay for some time, higher
energy consumption, no additional cost for size
separation unit.
Chemical Engineering Department
Energy Requirements in size reduction
• Size reduction of solids is an energy intensive process
• 5% of electricity generated world wide is used in size
reduction however, the industrial scale size reduction
process is generally less than 1% efficient
• This tells as researchers must conduct research to
improve the efficiency of this reduction process
• A lot of researches were conducted the process
remained inefficient
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• Theoretically the energy required to produce a
small change in the size of unit mass of material
expressed as;
where dE is the change in energy
dx is the change in size
k is constant
x is particle size
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• There are three well known postulates
predicating energy requirements for particle
size reduction.
Kick’s law
Ritinger’s law
Bond’s law
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Kick’s law
• State that the energy required for a given size
reduction was proportional to the size reduction ratio
irrespective of the original size.
where E = energy required for crushing M kg of
material
Kk = kick’s constant
Df = average (median) diameter for the feed
DP = average (median) diameter for the product
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
• The law has limitation since the energy is
dependent on only reduction ratio, it is obvious
that higher amount of energy is required for
reducing fine particles than larger one.
• Kick’s law is applicable with out much serious
for larger particle size (coarse crushing).
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Rittinger’s law
• States that the energy required for size reduction
is proportional to the new surface created.
since surface area and size of the particle are
inversely related
• Rittinger’s law better for fine grinding.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Bond’s law
• Bond considered that the work necessary for
reduction was inversely proportional to the square
root of the size produced.
• To apply bonds law we have to evaluate the bonds
constant kb which is evaluated by defining what is
called work index wi it is defined as the gross
energy necessary to reduce a very large feed to
such a size that 80% of product particles will pass
through a 0.1mm screen.
Chemical Engineering Department
Cont’d
Where
wi = work index
DPb= diameter of the product that 80% of product pass
through
DFb= diameter of the feed that 80% of feed pass through
• Bond’s law used for a variety of materials undergoing
coarse, medium, and fine size reduction.
Chemical Engineering Department
Crushing Efficiency
• The energy efficiency of a crushing equipment can
be defined in two ways
• The power required can be calculated by
where
Chemical Engineering Department
Example 1
A crusher is fed with a limestone having a particle size of
2cm median equivalent diameter and discharges a product
consisting of particles of 0.5cm median equivalent diameter.
The equipment operates at capacity of 1.2*104kg/h
consuming a power of 10hp. If the requirement of the
process demands a fine size of the product 0.4cm of median
equivalent diameter decreasing the capacity to 1.0*104kg/h
determine the theoretical power consumption under the new
condition assuming a) kick’s law b) Rittingers law
Example 2
Quartz is fed at a rate of 25,000kg/h to a ball mill. The screen anaysis for
both feed and product streams are given in table below. If the total power
supplied to drive the mill is 75Kw, determine the energy efficiency of the
mill by using bond’s law (work index for quartz is 13.57kwh/tonne)
Screen size, mm Feed mass fraction Product mass fraction
-3.327+2.362 0.147 0
-2.362+1.651 0.211 0
-1.651+1.168 0.230 0
-1.168+0.833 0.186 0.098
-0.833+0.589 0.120 0.234
-0.589+0.417 0.076 0.277
-0.417+0.295 0.03 0.149
-0.295+0.208 0.004 0.101
-0.208+0.147 0 0.068
-0.147+0.104 0 0.044
-0.104 0 0.029
