Modeling of maize breakage in hammer mills of different scales through a population balance approach

CHIARAVALLE, ALEJANDRO; LOBOS DE PONGA, JACQUELINA; COTABARREN, IVANA M.; PIÑA, JULIANA

Workshop; Advanced Process Modelling Forum 2021; 2021

PSE Enterprise

The grinding of maize grains is an important process in the industry of poultry feed, being the most commonly used cereal in diet worldwide Hammer mills are usually used for this process because of their simplicity, easy operation and low maintenance cost However, the grinding process in hammermills itself is complex and not completely understood The resulting particle size distribution depends not only on material properties but also on design and operation variables of the mill (screen opening, mill rotor speed and feed rate).In this context, a simulator for a grinding process is presented The simulator is based on a population balance model ( that allows quantifying changes in particle size distributions ( and the mass geometric mean diameter D gw This model was developed in gPROMS ® Model Builder, usingexperimental data collected from a pilot scale mill for parameter fitting The model was verified for an industrial mill The gPROMS ® in built parameter estimation tool was used for parameter fitting and statistical test analysis.