Fluidized bed granulation and coating systems and methods

A fluidized bed granulation (FBG) system, comprising:

• a feedstock vessel adapted to hold powder feedstock to be granulated;
• a pre-wetting subsystem, wherein the feedstock is pre-wet in the pre-wetting subsystem to a predetermined % value;
• a fluidization chamber;
• an inlet coupled to the fluidization chamber and adapted to receive the pre-wet feedstock to be granulated;
• a plenum coupled to the fluidization chamber by a distributor plate having slots through which a fluidization gas is passed to the fluidization chamber, said gas having a fluidization velocity including a fluidization direction;
• an outlet compartment coupled to the fluidization chamber by a termination plate having one or more filter bags whereby gases are allowed to escape the fluidization chamber while the pre-wet feedstock is held back on surfaces of the one or more filter bags;
• a liquid binder system adapted to introduce a liquid binder into the fluidization chamber through nozzles to spray the liquid binder in substantially same or opposite direction as the fluidization direction;
• an outlet configured to eject granulated product with granules having a geometric mean and a geometric standard deviation;
• a plurality of sensors adapted to inform a processor executing instructions maintained on a non-transitory memory, wherein the processor using a mass, energy, and fluidization balance model is adapted to optimize the FBG system to provide the granulated product having an optimized geometric mean for granule size at an optimized geometric standard deviation, wherein the ejected granules have a geometric granule size and shape distribution of between about 2.0 and about 1.0.