Continuous thermal treatment of bulk material

Abstract

The invention relates to a device (1) for continuous heat treatment of granulated materials, especially to the crystallization of polymer granulate, such as polyethylenterephthalate (PET) for example.The device comprises several adjacent fluidization chambers (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) respectively provided with a sieve plate (11) through which a fluidization gas used to fluidize the granulate can be insufflated into the respective chamber from below via a gas inlet (9), said gas being able to escape via a gas outlet (10) in the top area of the device. The first chamber (2) takes up the greater part ofthe overall volume of all chambers (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and neighbouring chambers are, respectively, fluidically connected by means of product throughflow openings (18, 19, 20, 21; 28, 29, 30, 31) in the separating walls (14, 15, 16, 17) arranged therebetween. According to the inventive method, using the inventive device (1), the granulated material is guided through several adjacent fluidization chambers (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), the absolute filling level of the fluidized granulating material in the first chamber (2) being at least as high as the absolute filling level of the other adjacent chambers (3, 4, 5, 6) disposed downstream therefrom.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a plant for the continuous heat treatment of granular bulk material, in particular for the crystallization of polymer particles such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which has a terminal as A product inlet in the chamber of the upstream first chamber and a product outlet after the downstream last chamber. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for the continuous heat treatment of granular bulk material, in particular for the crystallization of polymer particles such as polyethylene terephthalate, using the apparatus according to the invention. Background technique [0002] Such a device is known, for example, from EP 0 712 703 A2. Such equipment comprises a housing with an inlet and an outlet for the plastic chips (or chips) to be heat-treated. The interior of the housing is divided into a first large chamber and several smaller chambers by a plurality of partition walls, wherein the partition walls betwee...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Although cost savings are achieved by using only a single processing space for fluidization purposes and eliminating the need for stirring tools etc., it is still not possible to ensure that the residence time of the particles is within a very narrow range, and thus the granulation of the pellets. very uniform product quality

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