Modeling and Control of Twin Screw Granulation process

The motivation in this research direction is to transfer the results of modeling and control form batch crystallization to continuous granulation where we particularly focus on twin screw wet granulation (TSWG) process. Granulation is the process of forming granules from a powdery material by addition of liquid binder. It is applied in several technological processes in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, for instance, in tablet formation. Twin screw granulation is one of the various techniques utilized in continuous granulation. The process of granulation involves simultaneously various particulate phenomena such as nucleation, growth, aggregation (also referred to as agglomeration) and breakage of the particles. This research focuses on the modelling and control of twin screw granulation process. Population balance systems, typically described by integro-differential equations, are used to describe granulation process, where integral terms describe the macroscopic kinetics and partial differential equations (typically, of hyperbolic type) describe the evolution of various local phenomena, including growth, nucleation, agglomeration and breakage. At the core of our research lies the development of an efficient and robust semi-analytical ODE schemes for modeling and control of population balance systems, involving various state dependent phenomena, with a particular emphasis on agglomeration and breakage. 

 

• To develop finite dimensional mathematical models using approximate method of moments (AMOM)  for various classes of population balance systems in continuous TSG process.
• Estimation of process parameters and the kernels of dominating mechanisms (i.e., nucleation, growth, aggregation and breakage).
• Realization of a desired granule size or shape distribution by computing corresponding optimal control profiles.
• Experimental validation of the algorithms of optimal control.

Twin Screw Granulation
Modelling
Approximate Method of Moments
Continuous Process
Process Control
Liquid-to-solid ratio
Screw Speed
 

M.Sc. Iqra Batool
Gottlieb-Daimler-Str. 42
67663, Kaiserslautern
Phone: +49 (0)631/205-3702
Fax: +49 (0)631/205-4201
iqra.batool(at)mv.uni-kl.de

 

Prof. Dr. M. Thommes, TU Dortmund