Granulation processing variables on the physical properties of granule slow release urea fertilizer

Abstract

Slow release urea fertilizer (SRF) had been made by wet granulation on a pan granulator. The current study was to understand how the variable wet granulation process of disk granulators affects the physical properties of granules, such as granule durability, density, granule yield, and water absorption. The response of variation two factors was observed, namely adhesive concentration and granulation time. The chosen adhesive is starch from cassava flour. The type of adhesive, composition of the formulation, angle of slope, speed of rotation, and weight of the material are kept constant to minimize their influence on the properties of the granule. To find out the effect of changing variables on the response, a single factor ANOVA analysis was performed. Furthermore, a linear regression model was built to understand the impact of variables on physical properties. The results showed that the impact of adhesive concentration had a positive influence on the response of water absorption, bulk density, yield and durability. In addition, the higher the concentration of the adhesive, the more dispersion time will increase. The same thing happens with variations in granulation time. SEM images of granules showed that compact sphere granules were produced at higher adhesive concentrations.