Powder engineering

From formulation to solution

GEA Process EngineeringGEA Niro

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At first glance, drying seems like a simple, if necessary stepin the production of many industrial chemicals. On closerinspection, however, it can be seen as one of the keys tounlocking the door to better, safer, cheaper, and even “greener” products.

No one knows more about the role of industrial drying in engineering high-performance powders than GEA Niro. Withdata gleaned from 75 years of experience, plus a referencelist of some 10,000 plants, it won’t take us long to engineerthe properties you want into your product, or the processesneeded to produce them.

A drier powder? An easier flowing granulate? An agglomer-ate with fewer fines? Or maybe just a more competitiveprocess. There’s no quicker way to get from formulation to solution than by consulting the powder engineers at GEA Niro.

And by solution, we don’t just mean a recommended flow orsuggestion to use a spray, flash or fluid-bed dryer—thoughwe’re the world’s leading supplier of such equipment. We’retalking powder. GEA Niro operates over 75 pilot plantsworldwide for application testing, and our test engineers andprocess technologists represent the largest pool of specializedtalent ever assembled.

GEA Niro’s test facilities and analytical laboratories allowyou to establish the feasibility of using GEA Niro equipment,optimise process conditions and provide samples for marketanalysis. We offer the industry’s most advanced analyticalcapabilities, including GEA Niro’s proprietary design methodDRYNETICS™, which – when required – encompasses drying kinetics measurements and computational fluiddynamics (CFD) simulation. GEA Niro’s analytical capabili-ties give you a deeper understanding of your product dryingand enables you to move smoothly from development to profitable production.

Engineering the product

GEA Niro tailors the dry-ing pro cess for the particu-late size, structure, mois-ture content and otherproperties needed for yourapplication. We call itpowder engineering.

Powders

Agglomerates

Granules

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Now picture yourself in China or India. You’ve been workingvirtually with a team of GEA Niro engineers in Europe andBrazil, and have a computer simulation of the process flow.Tests at a pilot plant in Japan look convincing. It’s time toscale up.

This is the point at which organizational skill beats engineer-ing talent. No matter how good the science, what you neednow is structure.

GEA Niro has time-tested procedures for taking projectssmoothly all the way to completion. Every step is spelled out,every valve documented, every process qualified. And it’s allcoordinated for you by an organization that implements hun-dreds of drying projects a year—a growing number of themin developing parts of the world.

GEA Niro is also experienced at structuring financial pack-ages. Our in-house project financing team can help you setup a complex financing scheme or a simple leasing contract.And our legal department can assist with drawing up confi-dentiality agreements and ensuring that our equipment willnot infringe third party rights.

Finally, GEA Niro can help you address two of the industry’smost pressing challenges: safety and environmental compli-ance. Our expertise in explosion-control design is unequaled—an invaluable aid whether you’re looking at ATEX, otherEuropean safety directives or local regulations. What’s more,we’re a leading supplier of emission control systems forchemical plants.

GEA Niro is equally athome engineering powdersof a few microns or plants covering thousands ofsquare meters.

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Structuring the project

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The average chemical drying plant is three months on thedrawing board, half a year under construction and 30 yearsin operation, often on a nearly continuous basis. A reminder:What you really want isn’t just a drier capable of producingx tons of powder an hour, but a partner who can keep yourplant running like new.

See yourself (or your successors) a few years from now,when customer requirements or market conditions havechanged. Or look farther down the road, to a tougher regula-tory environment. When it’s time for an upgrade GEA Nirowill be right by your side, helping you optimize productquality, energy efficiency, operational safety and environ-mental protection. We offer the most in-depth support ofany supplier in the drying industry—programs designed tokeep our solutions, and your drying process, as timeless aspossible. Put it this way: we want you to stay in the relation-ship because you feel attracted, not locked in.

Above all, we believe service is a local business. With GEANiro, you never have to go far for assistance or overcometime or language barriers. We’re there, wherever chemicalsare processed. And not just with representatives, but withour own staff, stocks of spare parts, service engineers andtraining specialists.

For more information about GEA Niro and our capabilities, services and equipment for chemical makers, please seewww.niro.com.

GEA Niro will keep yourdrying plant up and run-ning and up to date.

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Extending the relationship

ExperienceGEA Niro has contracted andinstalled more than 10,000 plants worldwideGEA Niro is a world leader in industrial drying, with spray drying,

dna noitalunarg ,gniyrd ezeerf ,gniyrd hsalf ,gni laegnoc/gnilooc yarps�uid bed processing as core technologies. Having installed more than10,000 plants around the globe, GEA Niro is known for deliveringsolutions that meet customers’ exact requirements. The GEA Nirocompanies are part of GEA Process Engineering.

GEA Process Engineering Inc.9165 Rumsey Road • Columbia, MD 21045 • Tel: 410-997-8700 • Fax: 410-997-50211600 O'Keefe Road • Hudson, WI 54016 • Tel: 715-386-9371 • Fax: 715-386-9376E-mail: gea-pe.us@gea.com • Website: www.niroinc.com