Experiments and Modeling of the Preparation of Ultrafine Calcium Carbonate in Spouted Beds with Inert Particles

A novel reaction-drying process was carried out in a spouted bed reactor with inert particles and used to prepare ultrafine CaCO3 particles. Effects of concentrations of CO2 and Ca(OH)2, and reaction temperature on Ca(OH)2 conversion were experimentally investigated. The particle sizes and composition of CaCO3 produced were characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicated that ultrafine CaCO3 particles with mean size of 80 nm could be obtained with this novel process.By modifying the Arrhenius Equation and considering the Ca(OH)2 state, a kinetic model was established to describe the process in the spouted bed. The model parameters estimated from the reaction-drying experiments were found to fit well the experimental data, indicating the applicability of the proposed kinetic model.

Nickel composite plating with fly ash as inert particle

The Ni/FA composite plating was realized by electrodeposition with fly ash （FA） as inert particles. The main compositions of FA are 72% SiO2 and 25% A1203 in the size of 3-7 Ixm. Electrodeposition was performed in Watts bath containing FA with concentrations of 5, 20, 50 g/L, current densities of 2 and 4 A/dm2, temperature of 50 ~C and magnetic stirring of 250 r/min. Scanning electron microscope （SEM＋EDX）, electrochemical and mechanical technique were used to study morphology, composition and properties of coating. FA content in deposit is dependent on the FA concentration in solution, as well as the plating parameters. Since FA particles were incorporated in the coating, the mechanical and electrochemical properties of the coating were increased. The microhardness of Ni/FA composite plating reaches HV 430 in comparison with HV 198 of pure Ni coating. It was confirmed by electrochemical measurement that the corrosion resistance of Ni/FA composite coating was higher than that of pure Ni.

Drying of suspensions and solutions on inert particle surface in mechanically spouted bed dryer

To eliminate some disadvantages of the conventional spouted bed dryers the mechanically spouted bed （MSB） system was developed. This dryer type is convenient to use inert particles providing an increased surface area for drying of materials of high-moisture content and heat sensitive materials. On three different drying tasks are demonstrated the experimental optimization of process parameters to obtain products of demanded quality. The main object was at drying of AIO（OH） suspension to preserve the particle size under 2.5μm and to obtain product with a moisture content of about 0.05 kg/kg （d.b.）. For this reason a very thin particle coating and intensive abrasion had to be assured. At drying of tomato concentrates the thermoplasticity makes the process very difficult. To jump over the deliquescent and sticky state developed at the critical temperature-moisture content values a very short drying time （8-10 s） must be provided. The third task was to form powder-like product from bovine serum albumin （BSA） solution having very low solid content （2-4%）. The selected process parameters given in this paper resulted in a mean particle size of less than 20 μm while the soluble oreserved orotein content was higher than 90%.