Fluidized bed granulation
AssigneeYara International Asa
InventorsJaap Voorhans, Luc Vanmarcke, André Kayaert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and fluidized bed reactor for the production of granules, such as granules of urea or ammonium nitrate. The fluidized bed reactor comprises at least one granulation compartment with air inlets, and an air moving device downstream of the granulation compartment, e.g., downstream of at least one scrubbers. The air moving device is configured to draw air through said at least one air inlet into at least one granulation compartment.
Claims16
1-17. (canceled)
A fluidized bed reactor comprising:
- a) at least one granulation compartment with one or more air inlets;
- b) at least one after-cooler compartment downstream of and integrated with the at least one granulation compartment;
- c) a single scrubber downstream of the granulation compartment;
- d) a single exhaust duct configured to provide a single exhaust stream from the at least one after-cooler compartment directly to the scrubber;
- e) at least one air moving device downstream the scrubber;
- wherein the granulation compartment is configured to draw air through said one or more air inlets into the granulation compartment;
- and,
- wherein the at least one air moving device has sufficient capacity to create a vacuum exceeding the total pressure drop between the air inlets and the air moving device.
A method for producing urea-based or ammonium nitrate-based granules using a fluidized bed reactor comprising at least one granulation compartment having one or more air inlets, at least one after-cooler compartment downstream of and integrated with the at least one granulation compartment and a bed of ammonium nitrate-based or urea-based granules, a single scrubber downstream of the granulation compartment, a single exhaust duct configured to provide a single exhaust stream from the at least one after-cooler compartment directly to the scrubber, and at least one air moving device downstream the scrubber;
- the method comprising:
- drawing air in the at least one granulation compartment through the one or more air inlets using the at least one air moving device;
- fluidizing the bed of granules with the drawn in air in the granulation compartment;
- spraying the granules with a granulating liquid;
- transferring the sprayed granules to the after-cooler;
- cooling the sprayed granules.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.