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Understandin and Solving Material Caking Problems in Dry Bulk Storage
Understandin and Solving Material Caking Problems in Dry Bulk Storage
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C
yield strength — that is, the major principal stress acting
on the bulk material that will cause the unconfined mate-
rial to yield (or break). The greater your material’s caking
tendency, the larger its unconfined yield strength will be. enough moisture to mobilize ions in the particles. The ions
And, of course, for a caking study, you must measure this in each particle then seek out and react with other chemi-
strength after subjecting your bulk material to a caking cals in that particle or in the material-and-water mixture,
stimulus, such as temperature cycling or storage time. forming a gel that builds chemical bonds between parti-
[Editor’s note: You can test your material’s bulk uncon- cles. In this case, the water in the stored material reacts
fined yield strength with a uniaxial compression tester or chemically, changing the bulk material’s structure and
a shear cell tester; for more information, see the later “For producing cementation caking. Typical materials subject
further reading” section or contact the author.]
Figure 3
30
25
20
Sodium carbonate mixture
15 with 2 percent decahydrate
10
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of temperature cycles
b. Cementation caking of fly ash identified by equal strength increases with and without temperature cycling
Unconfined yield strength (kilopascals)
50
40
After 12 hours of storage
30 with no temperature cycle
20
12
Unconfined yield strength (kilopascals)
10
0
68°F 86°F 104°F 122°F 140°F 158°F
(20°C) (30°C) (40°C) (50°C) (60°C) (70°C)
Storage temperature
Copyright CSC Publishing
to cementation caking include fly ash, Portland cement, show a dramatic strength increase beginning at a stored
gypsum, and some ceramics. temperature of about 104°F.
In general, a stored material can experience cementation Modifying your material to mitigate caking
caking in conditions without temperature cycling. Instead, You may be able to modify your material to prevent it from
a minimum energy is required to activate the ions. This en- caking or reduce the amount of caking. How to change
ergy is heat energy generated from an initial exothermic your material will depend on which caking mechanism it’s
hydrolysis reaction (in which water breaks the chemical subject to, the material’s characteristics, the modification
bond between molecules), and the resulting chemical re- method’s cost, and — when the material will be in a prod-
action continues at a rate determined by the local concen- uct for human consumption — whether the modified ma-
tration of reacting ions and the local temperature. This terial will be toxic or harmful.
means that you can identify the caking mechanism as ce-
mentation when the measured material strength is the
same both after temperature cycling and after being held at Crystalline bond caking. You can modify a soluble mate-
a constant temperature. rial subject to crystalline bond caking in several ways. You
can coat the material with a moisture-barrier powder that
will prevent the material from dissolving and significantly
You can see this characteristic in the strength test results reduce the number of crystalline bonds formed between
for fly ash shown in Figure 3b. In the tests, the unconfined particles. Or you can add a surfactant to your material,
yield strength of two fly ash samples was measured under which won’t prevent crystallization but will limit the crys-
three different consolidation stresses after 12 hours of stor- tal size, thus reducing the strength of the crystalline bonds
age, both with and without a 3-hour temperature cycle. between particles. Or you can add a moisture scavenger (a
The unconfined yield strength for each sample is the same drying agent) to your material, which will absorb water
at each consolidation stress, identifying the caking mech- vapor and prevent the material from dissolving and form-
anism as cementation. ing crystalline bonds.
Plastic creep caking. One form of plastic creep caking, Cementation caking. Modifying a material subject to ce-
called thermal creep, affects materials that can soften at an mentation caking usually requires keeping the material’s
elevated temperature. Such a material deforms (or creeps) moisture content below the minimum threshold for ion
over time when stored at a constant elevated temperature. mobilization. In some cases, reducing the temperature at
An interface forms between adjacent particles and, if left which you store or handle the material, in addition to re-
long enough, the deformed particles creep and form a sin- ducing its moisture content, will slow or eliminate cemen-
gle mass, as shown in Figure 2c. Elastomer powder, plastic tation caking. Because cementation reactions are also
pellets, soy powder, erucamide powder (a slip agent for sensitive to pH levels, adding a powder base, acid, or
plastic films), and lactose powder are common examples buffer to the material — depending on your material’s
of materials subject to thermal creep caking. chemistry — can prevent extremely basic or acidic pH
conditions from causing cementation caking.
Another form of plastic creep occurs when a material sen-
sitive to creep crosses its glass transition temperature. In
this case, particles stored at an elevated temperature reach
an amorphous state that allows the particles to deform, re-
sulting in plastic creep. The glass transition temperature
depends on the particle’s moisture content, so changes in
Preventing or reducing thermal or glass transition creep
touching during shear conditions (when the particles are tends to promote perfect plug flow and can cause such a
moving during vessel filling or discharge). In some cases, material to cake.
changing the shape of the large-diameter flow-aid particles
can improve coverage of the soft particle surfaces.
To promote interparticle motion, you don’t need to com-
pletely empty and refill your vessel. The vessel’s cone sec-
Modifying your storage vessel or process tion must simply have enough convergence or appropriate
to mitigate caking internal inserts to promote interparticle motion. (This prin-
ciple applies to both funnel- and mass-flow vessel de-
You may also be able to modify your storage vessel or signs.) The amount of material in motion in your vessel
process to prevent or reduce caking. Which change will depends on the size of the largest region between converg-
work for your application usually depends on which cak- ing walls, and the amount of convergence your vessel can
ing mechanism your material is subject to, but one change have depends on your material’s compressibility, which
— reducing storage time — can mitigate any caking you can measure by measuring the material’s bulk density
mechanism’s effects. as a function of stress applied to it. [Editor’s note: For
more information on bulk density measurements, see the
Reducing storage time. Caking of any type always yields later “For further reading” section or contact the author.]
particles that are bonded or attached to each other by some To promote interparticle motion and prevent caking, the
means after a certain storage time. By measuring the in- strain induced by passing your material through your cone
crease in your material’s unconfined yield strength after section’s converging geometry must simply be greater
various storage times, you can deduce the characteristic than the strain induced by compressing the material.
bonding time for your material’s caking mechanism. You
can then design your storage vessel or process to prevent Using flow-aid devices. Using flow-aid devices like air
bonding by inducing interparticle motion (moving parti- blasters, live-bottom screws, and vibrating bin bottoms to
cles relative to each other) at a time scale — that is, storage prevent caking works only about half the time. While an
time — less than that at which your material caked. air blaster has enough force to break up lightly caked ma-
terial, the blaster’s sphere of influence in the caked mate-
Generally, the time required for your material to cake (that rial is only from 2.6 to 4.3 feet, depending on the material’s
is, the time constant) depends on the caking mechanism. characteristics. While the device typically causes signifi-
Crystalline bond caking requires a temperature cycle, cant interparticle motion near the blaster inlet, it causes
which typically occurs daily, so the time required for this very little motion farther away.
form of caking is usually about 2 to 3 days. The time re-
quired for cementation caking can be much shorter —
about 3 to 12 hours. Plastic creep (both thermal and glass A vessel with live-bottom screws can be effective for mit-
transition) caking can occur in an even shorter time — as igating a moderate caking problem. In this case, the mate-
little as 15 minutes — but in some cases may occur only rial flows uniformly downward in the vessel until it
after 4 or more hours. With thermal creep caking, note that reaches the screws, which induce a large amount of strain
two time constants are usually in play: The first is the time on the flow as they carry material out of the vessel. To pre-
it takes to move particles relative to each other during a vent stagnant regions from forming during discharge, the
compression event (such as filling a vessel with material, screws must withdraw material across their entire length.
when force is applied to the material without causing
shear), and the second is the time it takes for the particles A vibrating bin bottom doesn’t typically induce enough in-
to deform, which creates greater surface area for adhesion terparticle motion to prevent caking, but when properly
forces between particles. To prevent thermal creep caking, designed, it can sometimes induce mass flow and reduce
you’ll need to measure both of these time constants for caking. Note: Don’t use a dished-head vibrating bin bot-
your material along with the material’s compressibility. tom if your material tends to cake, because a stagnant re-
gion will form in the dished head and make mass flow
impossible.
Designing your storage vessel’s convergence geometry
to promote interparticle motion. To prevent areas of stag-
nant material that will cake, the particles in your vessel Using dry gas injection to prevent crystalline bond cak-
must move relative to each other. It may seem like using a ing. If your material is subject to crystalline bond caking,
mass-flow vessel design that produces first-in first-out any procedure that disrupts its crystal growth rate will mit-
flow should prevent caking, but this motion can actually igate caking. Crystalline bond caking requires the mate-
promote caking. Material in a mass-flow vessel moves in rial’s exposure to humid air, which causes moisture to
plug flow — all particles move together at a uniform ve- condense on the particle surfaces. Injecting a dry gas into
locity and maintain contact with adjacent particles, with the vessel removes the moisture and prevents condensa-
no interparticle motion except at the vessel wall. As a re- tion, thus reducing caking. Dry gas injection could be the
sult, if your material shows caking tendencies, you should topic of an entire article, but here’s a brief look at how you
avoid using any vessel with a tall cylinder section, which can apply this technique:
Copyright CSC Publishing
Figure 4
FEM analysis for determining placement of dry gas injection points in vessel to prevent caking
a. Expected temperature profile of material in vessel during night–day temperature cycle a
Night Day
0 309.0
Cold Hot 308.5
0.5
1.0 307.5
Length (meters)
Vessel 307.0
1.5 centerline
306.5
2.0 306.0
305.5
2.5 Dry gas
injection 305.0
points
3.0 304.5
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Width (meters) Width (meters)
a.
Note: The vertical arrows within the vessel show the gas flow direction; the larger the arrow, the higher the gas velocity.
0
High-humidity 100
0.5 region 90
80
Length (meters)
Humidity (percent)
1.0 70
60
1.5
50
2.0 40
30
2.5 20
10
3.0 0
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Width (meters)
c. Expected material moisture concentration
0 70
Region where 60
0.5 material’s moisture
concentration may
reach 70 percent 50
Humidity (percent)
1.0
Length (meters)
40
1.5
30
2.0
20
Region where material’s
moisture concentration may
2.5 reach 30 percent 10
3.0 0
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Width (meters)
Copyright CSC Publishing
caking.
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