Pneumatic Powder and Solids - Transport Systems

Pneumatic transport systems may be suited to move powder and other solid products

Some common solids as flour, sugar, cement and many more, can be suspended and transported in air - referred as pneumatic conveying. A pneumatic conveying system may transport solids up to approximately 50 mm size. The powder or solid must be dry, with no more than 20% moisture and not sticking.

In a pneumatic conveying system, most of the energy is used for the transport of the air itself. The energy efficiency of a pneumatic conveying plant is therefore relatively low, but this is often outweighed by easy handling and, in well designed systems, dust free solutions.

In general the length of a pneumatic system should not extend 300 m for each pneumatic unit. The products can be conveyed over long distances by connecting the systems in series.

There are three basic designs of pneumatic transport systems:

• dilute phase conveying at a high gas speeds (20 - 30 m/s)
• strand conveying at a limited gas speeds (15 - 20 m/s)
• dense phase conveying at a low gas speeds (5 - 10 m/s)

Pneumatic systems can operate with both positive and negative pressures - vacuum. The working pressure should not extend 40 kN/m².

The maximum temperature rise during pneumatic compression is seldom above 5^oC, which makes pneumatic transport systems suitable to sensitive products as medicines, food or similar.

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