PRILLING TOWER

1. A prill is small agregate of material, most often a dry

sphere formed from melted liquid  Soldification of droplets
of molten material free falling against Upward stream of air
in tower is  called Prilling
2. It is more convenient for use , storage and transporting
because of their much smaller specific surface area and
bulk density Prills of fertilizers are small , easy to handle ,
easily absorb in land , light in weight , very small impurities
etc
3. The melt must be sprayed into droplets uniform size as
required The sprayed droplets must be fully solidified and
cooled in order to avoid bonding of particles with each
other and caking on wall
4. It is cylindrical vertical tower with average hight 75 m , in
which urea prilling take place with huge diameter it has two
prill sections One is at top from where molten fertilizer
comes and other one at bottom from where prills are
collected
5. The molten fertilizer is sent on the top of fertilizer
plant with the help of centrifugal pump With the help of
spryer molten fertilizer is droped from the top in the form
drops inside the prilling tower While from the bottom hot air
is blown which dries the droplets in the form of solid prills
6. This process is widely used in manufacturing of
ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate and fertilizers of N,K
and P Prilling also used in explosives industry to produce
porous prills of amonium nitrate which will absorb oil
Typical prilling tower produce 200 ton/day of fertilizer
7. In order to produce large size fertilizer prills the hight of
prilling should be high and vice versa Higher the hight of
prilling tower more will be the strength of prills 50 m high
fertilizer prilling tower produce 2mm size prills while , for
explosive particles size of prilling tower is about 10 m to
produce small prills
8. The prill tower is a major source of emission in urea plants.
The large volumes of discharged untreated cooling air
contain particulate urea dust (1-2kg.t-1) as well as NH3
(0.7-1.0kg.t-1). Increasing the load on a prilling tower can
have negative consequences for the prill quality. Higher
moisture contents and higher temperatures cause more
dust formation and an increased likelihood of caking
problems
9. Competition from granules The quality of prills is
significant less than that of granules, the main difference
being the lower strength and smaller size of prills.
Research has shown that once a farmer has used
granules, he will not choose prills again, unless the price is
lower. Most new urea plants are large scale granulation
 plants and are located in low feedstock areas; these plants
are export driven and compete – or will compete – with
your prills.
10.Prilling tower is backbone of fertilizer or any other
chemical industry where the final product is in the form of
solid prills We can’t imagine a fertilizer industry without a
prilling tower The process in prilling tower is continuous ,
prills moves downward due to gravitational force
11.Granulation may be defined as a size enlargement
process which converts fine or coarse It is the process of
collecting particles together by creating bonds between
them. Bonds are formed by compression or by using a
binding agent particles into physically stronger and larger
agglomerates having good flow property, better
compression characteristics and uniformity. The art and
science for process and production of granules is known
as Granulation Technology.
12.Before granulation After granulation
13.Dry granulation Wet granulation
14.Dry granulation involves granule formation without using
liquid solution In dry granulation powder particles may be
brought together mechanically by compression into slugs
Products may be sensitive to heat and temperature
15.The process in which powder form particles combine to
form bigger and solid particle by the process of
agglorimation with the help of binding agent like water It is
mainly used in pharmacutical industry , in the formation of
tablets
16. The instrument where the process of granulation take
place is called granulator Granulators are classified on the
base of shear Shear is mechanical force applied by
instrument Granulators may be high shear , low shear or
intermediate shear
17. There are four major techniques which are used for wet
granulation process  1)high shear mixing granulation 
 2)fluid bed granulation  3)rotating disk method  4)spray
drying
18. In this type of equipment, the particles are set into
movement by an impeller rotating at a high speed (Approx
50100 rpm). Equipment also contains a chopper which
rotates at around 1500 – 4000 rpm [10]. The primary
function of chopper is to cut large lumps into smaller
fragments thus increases the binder distribution into the
blend.
19. Impeller speed : higher the impeller speed generally
denser and smaller granules , lower the speed generally
more porous and large particles Chopper speed : there is
no effect of chopper speed on granules size but in the
case when chopper is large size it act as secondary
impeller
20.Surface tension: lower surface tension binder will be use
in large amount to form granules of same size as
compared to binder with high surface tension Viscosity: a
binder with higher viscosity will produce smaller and
stronger granules
21.Fluid bed granulator is low shear type granulator Fluid bed
means suspended different particles in air The term
fluidization used which means mixing of solids
22.The powder particles are fluidized in a steam of air , but in
addition of granulation fluid sprayed from nozzle on bed of
powder Heated and filtered air is blown in order to mix
powder
23. Granulation fluid is pumped from a reservior through a
spry nozzle positioned over bed of particle the fluid cause
the particles to adhere when droplets and particle collide
escape of material from chamber is prevented by exaust
filter sufficient liquid is sprayed to produce require size
particles
24.> Spray dryer is the process has been used to produce
microcapsules , food ingredients , flavors and various
 biotechnological ingredients >This process differ from
others as it isa continues process
25.Spray dryer is like a prilling tower but it is used to produce
granules Hot solution is sprayed through atomizer from the
top Hot air blown in counter or co current manner As water
evaporate concentration of solution increase and granules
form Granules are separated by cyclone techniques
26. Rapid and continues process  Reduce overall cost  No
dust formation  Suitable for heat and moisture
27.Granulation mainly used in pharmacutical industry
Granulation time particle size Amount of binder granulation
time or size Particle size surface area amount of binder
solution granulation time Hydrofobicity hydrophiicity
amount of binder solution granulation time
28.In prilling tower hot molten liquid and air moves counter
current manner It do not involve any binder Its end product
is hollow and size is not uniform More tendency for caking
and breakage Operation is simple It does not involve
agglorimation Less storage life prilling   In granulation
powdered particles adhere in form of large particle It
involves use of binder End product is solid and size is
uniform No breakage and less caking tendency Operation
is not simple screening and cyclone separator used It
involve process of agglorimation Long storage life
granulation