Salt is one of the largest volume inorganic raw materials used in industry worldwide.  To convert it from rock salt into free-flowing crystals that are easy to transport, handle and feed, it needs to be dried from a water content of around 3% to 0.2%.  Until now this operation has been very difficult to perform on static equipment due to build-up on the casing and wet feed forming agglomerated lumps which blind the perforated plate.  For this reason processors have traditionally used vibrating fluid beds which use mechanical force to loosen the build-up and fluidise these agglomerates but have very high maintenance costs due to their constant motion.

To combat this problem, GEA Barr-Rosin has redesigned its static fluid bed drier. “Contact heating/cooling is not possible on a vibrating fluid bed,” explained Dominique Kuehner, sales and marketing manager. “By replacing 50% or more of the heat/cooling load from the air system, we can achieve an enormous reduction in airflow and consequently reduce the overall energy usage by more than 20%.” However, The company states that by far the most important benefit of using static equipment is the reduced mechanical stress and consequent savings in maintenance costs. To date GEA Barr-Rosin has installed over 2500 industrial drying systems worldwide. www.barr-rosin.com

 

 

 

 

 

Dominique Kuehner