Kinetics of Granule Growth in Fluidized Bed Granulation with Moisture Control.

Abstract

The kinetics of granule growth in fluidized bed granulation with moisture control was theoretically investigated. A population balance equation, in which moisture content was taken into consideration for the coalescence probability of two colliding granules, was proposed. The effects of damping speed and operation time on granule growth during moisture fixed command control were numerically examined. It was found that an increase in operation time resulted in an enlargement of granule diameter and a narrow size distribution during the damping process, but no significant growth was observed in the moisture fixed command control process. By contrast, a decrease in the operation time (large damping speed) caused small granule growth in the damping process, but a large growth in the moisture control process. The theory also showed good agreement with experimental granulation data for pharmaceutical powders