Problem statement [Total of 20 points + 2 bonus points]

Having discovered a precious ore on the islands of St. Lucia called ROYGBIV, my
friend and I decided to mine it and sell it for big money so we can retire early. Having
flunked the unit operations course in our university days, we decide to hand the design
problem over to you. There are two main issues we need you to untangle for us.
(A)

Transporting the mined ore to the roaster

Crushed ore
ROYGBIV

(10 points)

Conveyor belt

Storage
hopper
Control valve

Laughing gas

Ore to roaster

Transport pipe
Compressor
Figure 1: Rough layout of the mining/transport section of the plant

From Figure 1, it is clear we want to use a recently discovered gas Laughing gas for
transporting the ore
Find out what should be the minimum velocity of the laughing gas to transport the ore
without accumulation in the pipe. The average particle volume fraction is 0.3%.
State all necessary assumptions.
Magnetite (Specific gravity of 0.5, particle size range of 50m to 300m).
Nitrous oxide gas (Specific gravity of 1.53, kinematic viscosity of 1.36x10-5kg/ms).
(B)

Specifying a fluidized bed roaster (FBR) (10 points)

Using your answers in (A), we need you to determine some steady-state characteristics of
the FBR. Apparently, a variant of the transport gas used in (A) and with similar
properties, Laughing gas2 has some cleaning properties with which we can clean our
dirty ore with.

Dirty gas

Fluidized ore roaster

Raw ore ROYGBIV
(from storage hopper)

Overflow
weir

Gas distributor

Laughing gas2

Hw

Refined ore ROYGBIV

Bonus question 1 (2 points)

Where do you think the authors got the inspiration for naming the ore ROYGBIV and
what does it mean?
Bonus question 2 (1 point)
For a bonus of 1 point, take a wild stab in the dark and guess what is the authors
favourite cartoon character.

You may find the following information useful.

Laughing gas properties:
Density (kg/m3) = 3.45
Dynamic viscosity (kg/m.s) = 2.5 x 10-5
ROYGBIV ore properties (mean):
Density (kg/m3) = 3200
Diameter (microns) = 100
Transport pipe:
Diameter (m) = 200 mm
Length (m) = 500 m
FBR:
Diameter (m) = 5 m

Equation Sheet
You may find the following equations to be useful.
Equation
Dd U
U
3.90
5 log10
Uf

Uf
Uf
U f0

U pt
U f0

Dd p
4 L p p 1 p

U pt
1 2.8
U
f0

-none-

-none-

1/ 3

1p/ 2

1/ 3

d p Dd U f 0 p

4.90

Dd

2.71
U pt
d pU f 0

0.01
U f0

U mb 2.07

d p 0.06

0.347

exp 0.716 f

Suggested limitation
-none-

0.23

dp

5
U f 0

dp

5
U f 0