Agglomeration process including a heating step for making a free-flowing granulate

A process for the production of a free-flowing granulate consisting of a powder-form or fine-grained dry component and a liquid component, wherein the granulate contains at least 20% by weight of the liquid component, comprising the steps of:

• (a) imparting circular movement to a first dry powder-form or fine-grained component, having a particle size up to about 1 mm;
• said powder-form or fine-grained component comprising:
• from about 5 to about 55 parts by weight of highly disperse precipitated silica or sodium aluminosilicate;
• from about 3 to about 20 parts by weight of tetradecyltrimethylammonium salt;
• from about 1 to about 5 parts by weight of a premix of about 4 parts by weight of polydimethylsiloxane and about 6 parts by weight of highly disperse precipitated silica;
• and, optionally, from about 10 to about 40 parts by weight of tetraacetyl ethylene diamine;
• (b) spraying successively or simultaneously onto the moving mixture a liquid component comprising:
• from about 15 to 45 parts by weight alcohol ethoxylate;
• and
• from about 1 to 10 parts by weight of an about 10 to 40% by weight aqueous solution of a heavy metal complexing agent;
• (c) mixing the first dry component and the liquid until a substantially non-free-flowable moist granulate having a particle size of at most 1.5 mm is obtained;
• (d) heating the moist granulate from step (c) with hot air in a fluidized bed to about 60.degree.-90.degree. C. to agglomerate the first dry component particles and form a coarse-grained moist, substantially non-free-flowable granulate having a particle size of from 0.4 mm to 4.0 mm;
• (e) optionally mixing the moist granulate from step (d) with a first material comprising a second powder-form or fine-grained dry component or a mixture of the second dry component and a liquid component at 60.degree. to 90.degree. C., to obtain a granulate coated with said second dry component or mixture thereof;
• (f) lowering the temperature in the fluidized bed by from about 5.degree. to 10.degree. C. with continuous movement to obtain a dry-looking, free-flowing coarse-grained granulate product wherein at least 50% of the product has a particle size of from about 0.4 to 4 mm;
• and
• (g) optionally subjecting at least part of the granulate product from step (f) to steps (e) and (f).