Electrostatic atomization in the microscale granulation

Compared with traditional wet granulation, microscale granulation meets additional difficulties. For example, pressurized air cannot be used, electrostatic effects emphasize, and the droplet trajectories are difficult to control. In the present study, an electrostatic nozzle is presented, which proved to work better than the traditional methods, which utilize pressurized air. The main objective of the study was to examine different forces which act on the granulation liquid droplets. The most critical parameter in the presented setup is the electrostatic potential needed to guide the droplets to the fluidized bed. The forces were assessed with mathematical and computational methods. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.