Whether particles are being formed, reduced in size, enlarged, participating in reactions, or just being separated from a fluid stream, ignoring or poorly modeling the solids processing steps may lead to lost opportunities, including cost reductions and quality improvements. The main challenges that arise when optimizing or troubleshooting a solids process include inefficient designs due to separate modeling of fluids and solids sections, overdesign of equipment, high-energy demands, reduced yields and quality variability. Modeling the solids section of a process is important for many common processes including specialty chemicals, agrochemicals, metals and mining, pharmaceuticals, biofuels and more. This paper describes the approach for incorporating granular solids and the corresponding solids processing steps when modeling processes.

Whether it’s a pilot plant or a complex petrochemical plant, these facilities rarely run like a well-oiled machine. There are always unknown variable dependencies that are difficult to understand, and there’s substantial room for improvement. In many situations, optimization is not the focus for plants because there are issues with reliability and safety that take precedence. Does this sound familiar? The ability to simplify job tasks and boost efficiency will greatly enhance plant performance but also, make your job easier