Attrition

Particles in fluidized beds undergo collisions and frictional contacts with each other and with fixed surfaces, sometimes causing the particles to break [40, 41]. The most important mechanisms of attrition are impact attrition (also called fragmentation) and abrasion. Impacts can be especially energetic, and therefore likely to cause attrition, when particles are accelerated in distributor jets, feed jets, or cyclone entrances and then collide with fixed surfaces or stationary particles. 

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One disadvantage of fluidized heds is that attrition of the catalyst can cause the generation of catalyst flnes, which are then carried over from the hed and lost from the system. This carryover of catalyst flnes sometimes necessitates cooling the reactor effluent through direct-contact heat transfer hy mixing with a cold fluid, since the fines tend to foul conventional heat exchangers. 

Fluidized-bed catalytic reactors tend to generate loss of catalyst through attrition of the solid particles, causing fines to be generated. 

In particular, in silico methods are expected to speed up the drug discovery process, to provide a quicker and cheaper alternative to in vitro tests, and to reduce the number of compounds with unfavorable pharmacological properties at an early stage of drug development. Bad ADMET profiles are a reason for attrition of new drug candidates during the development process [9, 10]. The major reasons for attrition of new drugs are ... 

Virtual screening allows the scope of screening to be extended to external databases. When this is done, increasingly diverse hits can be identified. The application of virtual. screening techniques before or in parallel with HTS hclp.s to reduce the assay-to-lcad attrition rate observed from HTS. In addition, virtual screening is faster and less expensive than experimental synthesis and biological testing. 

Attractants Attrition loss Attritus Auger electron Auger electrons... 

Catalyst performance depends on composition, the method of preparation, support, and calcination conditions. Other key properties include, in addition to chemical performance requkements, surface area, porosity, density, pore size distribution, hardness, strength, and resistance to mechanical attrition. 

Physical Properties. Physical properties of importance include particle size, density, volume fraction of intraparticle and extraparticle voids when packed into adsorbent beds, strength, attrition resistance, and dustiness. These properties can be varied intentionally to tailor adsorbents to specific apphcations (See Adsorption liquid separation Aluminum compounds, aluminum oxide (alumna) Carbon, activated carbon Ion exchange Molecular sieves and Silicon compounds, synthetic inorganic silicates). 

Most adsorption systems use stationary-bed adsorbers. However, efforts have been made over the years to develop moving-bed adsorption processes in which the adsorbent is moved from an adsorption chamber to another chamber for regeneration, with countercurrent contacting of gases with the adsorbents in each chamber. Union Oil s Hypersorption Process (90) is an example. However, this process proved uneconomical, primarily because of excessive losses resulting from adsorbent attrition. 

The commercialization by Kureha Chemical Co. of Japan of a new, highly attrition-resistant, activated-carbon adsorbent as Beaded Activated Carbon (BAC) allowed development of a process employing fluidized-bed adsorption and moving-bed desorption for removal of volatile organic carbon compounds from air. The process has been marketed as GASTAK in Japan and as PURASIV HR (91) in the United States, and is now marketed as SOLD ACS by Daikin Industries, Ltd. 

The discovery (92) that the graphite coating of molecular sieves can dramatically improve their attrition resistance without significantly impairing adsorption performance should allow the extension of moving-bed technology to bulk gas separations (93). 

Pressure Drop. The prediction of pressure drop in fixed beds of adsorbent particles is important. When the pressure loss is too high, cosdy compression may be increased, adsorbent may be fluidized and subject to attrition, or the excessive force may cmsh the particles. As discussed previously, RPSA rehes on pressure drop for separation. Because of the cychc nature of adsorption processes, pressure drop must be calculated for each of the steps of the cycle. The most commonly used pressure drop equations for fixed beds of adsorbent are those of Ergun (143), Leva (144), and Brownell and co-workers (145). Each of these correlations uses a particle Reynolds number (Re = G///) and friction factor (f) to calculate the pressure drop (AP) per... 

Good gas distribution is necessary for the bed to operate properly, and this requites that the pressure drop over the distributor be sufficient to prevent maldistribution arising from pressure fluctuations in the bed. Because gas issues from the distributor at a high velocity, care must also be taken to minimize particle attrition. Many distributor designs are used in fluidized beds. The most common ones are perforated plates, plates with caps, and pipe distributors. 

Particle Attrition. Distributor jets are a potential source of particle attrition. Particles are swept into the jet, accelerated to a high velocity, and smash into other particles as they leave. To reduce attrition at distributors, a shroud or larger-diameter pipe is often added concentric to the jet hole, as shown in Figure 15. The required length of the concentric shroud is given by the relation... 

This shroud length allows the jet issuiag from the orifice to expand and fill the shroud. The gas velocity leaving the shroud should not exceed 70 m/s, to minimize attrition. 

Fluidized-bed reactor systems put other unique stresses on the VPO catalyst system. The mixing action inside the reactor creates an environment that is too harsh for the mechanical strength of a vanadium phosphoms oxide catalyst, and thus requires that the catalyst be attrition resistant (121,140,141). To achieve this goal, vanadium phosphoms oxide is usually spray dried with coUoidal siUca [7631-86-9] or polysiUcic acid [1343-98-2]. Vanadium phosphoms oxide catalysts made with coUoidal sUica are reported to have a loss of selectivity, while no loss in selectivity is reported for catalysts spray dried with polysUicic acid (140). 

Mechanical alloying is another method of producing dispersion-strengthened metals. In this process, the powdered constituents of the ahoy are treated in an attrition mih. A finely distributed layer of the dispersed phase is distributed on particles of the base metal. Subsequent pressing and sintering strengthens the dispersion (25). 

The general pieces of equipment used in grinding flake mica or mica concentrate into saleable mica products are hammer mills of various types, fluid energy mills, Chaser or Muller mills for wet grinding, and Raymond or WiUiams high side roUer mills. Another method is being developed, called a Duncan mill (f. M. Huber, Inc.), that is similar in many respects to an attrition mill. AH of these mills are used in conjunction with sieves, and all but some types of hammer mills incorporate air classifiers as a part of the circuit. 

Air-Suspension Coa.ting. The Wurster process utilizes a cylindrical chamber in which the cores are suspended in a controlled stream of air. Film coatings are appHed by introducing the coating solution into the airstream, where the solvent evaporates quickly. The process is much quicker than film coating however, care must be taken to avoid destmction of the cores by attrition in the air stream. 

Screw Feeders. Screws are primarily used when feed over a slotted outlet is requited. Screws are a good choice when an enclosed feeder is requited, when space is restricted, when handling dusty or toxic materials, or when attrition (particle breakage) is not a problem. A screw is composed of a series of flights that are wound around a common shaft. The flights have a particular diameter and pitch (the distance between flights). Some screws have constant pitch flights others vary. The screw shaft has to be sized to prevent deflection (12). 

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