The mechanism of spherical agglomeration in the wet system is examined with agitating the suspension of fine particles in organic liquid, with small added amount of a second bringing liquid, which preferently wets the particles.
The spherical agglomerates can be produced in a cylindrical vessel equipped with the turbine type of rotating agitator, using mainly the calcium carbonate-chloroform-water system.
The spherical microagglomerates were formed when the bridging liquid was occupied between 51 % and 90 % of the void volume among the agglomerated products.
The particle size distribution of agglomerates was found to take the Rosin-Rammler's distrinution function. It was also found that the size of agglomerates was increased with the increase of total specific net input energy during agglomeration process and it could be controlled by experimental factors such as added amount of bridging liquid, agitation speed, and agitation time.
Furthermore, the size of agglomerates was expressed with the function of cohesive factors involved in the wet system based on the equilibrium state of cohesive force and destructive force.