GEA Niro’s agglomeration plants for the Food & Dairy industry are used as benchmarks throughout the world for being innovative solutions combined with the designer’s product knowledge and experience.
Agglomeration is a process where two or more single particles adhere to each other, either by force or coincidence, to form an agglomerate. The trick is to control the process in order to obtain the wanted powder structure, particle size distribution, and bulk density. The degree of agglomeration is given by the process and plant design as well as product composition.
Single step agglomeration
GEA Niro operates with single step agglomeration in plants such as the Multi-Stage Dryer MSD™, the Integrated Filter Dryer IFD™, the COMPACT DRYER™, the conventional spray dryer SD, the TALL FORM DRYER™, or the Fluidized Spray Dryer FSD™. Here, agglomeration is mainly controlled by return of the fines (smallest particles) to the atomizer cloud.
Two step agglomeration
In two step agglomeration, the REWET process, the basis material is a spray dried or fluid bed dried powder. Two step agglomeration is carried out in a REWET AGGLOMERATOR™ or in the simpler Fluid Bed Granulator, depending on product composition and requirements for the agglomerate size.
A combination of the above
An example of a combination of the one and two step agglomeration processes is the Fluidized Spray Dryer Granulator FSD-GRANULATOR™ or the Integrated Filter Dryer Granulator IFD-GRANULATOR™. Here, it is possible to spray water or another liquid on to the fluidized powder layer in the integrated fluid bed to enhance the agglomeration.
GEA Niro's agglomeration plants can be delivered with an integrated manual or automatic CIP Cleaning in Place plant.
Safety aspects
All plants designed and supplied by GEA Niro will enable the end user to obtain approvals put forward by the EU directive.