(239d) Optimization Strategies in Purifying Dispersed Particulate Solids

In particle technology the purification process is widely applied to reach certain product puri-ties. The successive increase of demands on high-value products leads to more sumptuous efforts in optimizing purification processes. An optimization is only possible by understand-ing the physics and chemistry of the product and also the process itself. So purification has developed itself from a minor complementary step in a process chain into an important unit operation. The field of application is also very vast considering the variety of particulate products existing in the market. The chemical, pharmaceutical, life sciences and food indus-tries are only several examples of the relevant sectors. The investigations on purification processes have been performed sporadically in several in-stitutions since a couple of years. The main difficulty is creating a general understanding which allows specific optimization strategies for certain purposes within particular applica-tions. In order to enable this, it is necessary to perform continuous and systematic investiga-tions determining general influence parameters at first and specific ones for each set of proc-ess conditions by performing experimental tests and physical model building. Although many of the tasks in purification are of specific characteristics, some analogy and similarity can be found in other unit operations, where the investigations are already more advanced. This information provides a basic in understanding the purification phenomena. Some of the related processes are filtration, chromatography, packed column extraction etc. In the work done at the institute of mechanical process engineering and mechanics, process optimization strategies are developed based on investigations on product properties and mate-rial behaviour to determine influence parameters. Classifying products with similar properties and behaviours leads to a more specific and systematic process and apparatus screening to find the best solution of purification. The scope of this contribution is to identify and classify main surface attributes of different products and relate them with the physical mass transfer and flow phenomena to build a comprehensive strategy finding the proper washing procedure as a mean of purification.