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.