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Nowadays, screw feeders are popular equipment in the pharmaceutical industry. However, despite the increasing research in the last decade in the manufacturing of powder-based products, there is still a lack of knowledge on the physics governing the dynamic behavior of these systems. As a result, data-driven models have often been used to address process design, optimization, and control applications. In this paper, a methodology for the modeling of twin screw feeders has been suggested. A first order plus dead time model has been developed, where a hybrid mechanistic-empirical approach has been used. Different powders and two screw feeder geometries have been investigated. The model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental measurements when the 35 mm diameter screws are employed. When the 20 mm diameter screws are used, the validity range of the model is limited for the least cohesive powders, suggesting that their screw speed-dependent resistance to flow in small screws requires further investigations.

Nowadays, pyrohydrolysis techniques are widely applied for regeneration of spent pickling liquors providing an excellent environmental and economical strategy to the problem of waste disposal/recovery, also thanks to the high acid recovery efficiencies (>99%) achieved. In fact, in these processes, iron chlorides are converted into iron oxides and hydrogen chloride at high temperature in spray roasting or fluidized bed reactors. Though the state-of-the-art technologies have been successfully applied only to large-scale plants, the development of small-scale units, able to perform a delocalized regeneration of spent solutions where these latter are actually produced, would be strongly needed in order to minimize the transportation of hazardous spent pickling and fresh HCl solutions to/from pickling factories from/to large centralized regeneration plants. In the present work, a steady-state simulation model for regeneration of spent pickling liquor via spray roasting has been developed, aiming at the analysis of performance of a small-scale unit. The simulation and optimization of the process has been carried out using Aspen Plus simulator. A simplified model of the spray roaster, based on the data collected from studies reported in the literature, has been implemented and exported from Aspen Custom Modeler. Solid recovery from roaster off-gases has been obtained by a cyclone and a Venturi scrubber, where the spent pickling liquor is concentrated prior to be sprayed into the reactor. Hydrogen chloride is absorbed in an adiabatic absorber, where a sub-azeotropic (18–20 wt%) hydrochloric solution is obtained. Prior to the stack, a scrubber is required to wash off the exhaust gases. Several parametric studies have been performed. Different designs of solid separators have been compared in order to investigate the particulate separation efficiency of the process, while absorption column’s packing types and rinse water flow rates have been varied in order to investigate their effects on HCl recovery and acid gas emissions.

The preliminary design of a process consisting of extraction, back extraction and solvent recycling using small extractors has been investigated. In this paper a mathematical model of multicomponent Liquid-Liquid Extraction (LLE) during segmented flow in small channels is presented. The resulting model, suitable for applications to Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) reprocessing, can be used to explore alternative flowsheets for the nuclear fuel cycle employing the novel two-phase contactors. Case studies have shown that, using small scale contactors, significant improvements may be achieved.