Thick Slurry Residence Time Problem - Too Much Floor Space on Scale-up

[OffshoreWozza]

Hi

I have a slurry the consistency of toothpaste from the outlet of a mixer extruder. The liquid component is acid. I need residence time to allow for the acid to be fully absorbed into the solids. It is a diffusion reaction.
Our pilot plant uses a side-to-side moving nozzle, squeezing out a long paste 'snake' from the extruder, across the width of a conveyor. The snake diameter must be keep small for max surface area, otherwise heat build-up causes a run away reaction. We call this 'dwell time' on the conveyor.

We want to scale up. The problem is that the scaled up dwell time conveyor would have a huge surface area.

Could anyone kindly suggest an alternative.
A larger extruder won't work - not practical for a variety of reasons.

Regards & thanks

 

[Compositepro]

How many times have I heard "we need to fix the problem but we can't change anything"? You will change what you have to,in the end, to fix your problem.

To get around the diffusion rate limit you can grind your solids smaller. Perhaps increase temperature.

To avoid exotherm make your material layer thinner to improve heat transfer, and warmer to increase reaction rate.