Powders and Granules – Characteristics and Behaviour 2026 – 2nd Extra edition

The course Powders and Granules – Characteristics and Behaviour deals with the understanding of powders and granules: how they behave during bulk solids handling and processing. This course is organized in close connection with the other course from the Powders and Granules series that focuses on Processes and Unit Operations. Both courses can be followed independently but due to the complementary nature we strongly advise a combination of the two. We also offer a special rate for persons that are interested in attending both courses!

Powder processing is of great importance for various branches of industry, such as the chemical, pharmaceutical, coating, food and feed, and battery industry. Depending on the sector, the degree of solids involved can vary from 30-80% of the total product flow. Understanding the behaviour and handling of powders and granules is still mainly an empirical art, although the theoretical and practical knowledge on this subject is increasing steadily. Also more and more dedicated techniques and methodologies become available to mimic powder behaviour on a laboratory scale. Intrinsic parameters such as particle size, morphology, density, porosity etc. of the powders and granular material will greatly affect the behaviour of the solid matter. Besides, external variables such as temperature, relative humidity, and pressure often are also crucial in how products behave, especially over time. These parameters will therefore also be an important part of the course.

This course examines various methodologies that are available to better understand the behaviour of powders and granules in close relation to their intrinsic properties as well as external variables. The “flow ability” and “flood ability” of bulk powders are essential in powder storage and transport, both under unconsolidated and (time) consolidated conditions. Moisture can greatly influence the flow properties, especially during prolonged storage and caking can occur. Mixing solid materials can be challenging and often go hand in hand with segregation. Why and when segregation occurs and how it can be suppressed is discussed based on practical examples. Caking of solid materials is often seen as an undesired phenomenon and especially when this occurs over a longer period of time it is difficult to predict and get grip on. The role of pressure, temperature, and relative humidity and processes associated with these external variables is covered also in relation to the phenomenon of stickiness. The strength of solid materials can greatly impact on wear, this can be detrimental to the powder materials themselves but also to equipment parts. How to assess and how to amend the particle strength and wear is covered. Wear can also induce the release of small particles and if these become airborne, dustiness can become an issue. How to predict and quantify dustiness of solid materials, both present as intrinsic dust particles or created during handling, is discussed including ways to suppress dustiness form occurring. With emerging markets also the conductivity of powders becomes more relevant and why powders can be conductive or non-conductive is discussed and ways to measure and quantify the conductivity of powders is touched upon. In case of non-conductive powders electrostatic charging can be an issue. Mechanisms of charging of particles are reviewed and both prediction and measurement of electrostatic charging based on triboelectric properties are covered. When powders need to get into contact with liquid, wettability is a critical property and when it comes to dissolution the four-step trajectory of wettability-sinkability-dispersibility-dissolution comes into play. A dedicated lecture discusses all these steps associated with formulation of solids and how accordingly the performance of a product can be optimized.

This course creates a much better understanding on the importance of powder properties and their behaviour, how they can be measured, and how they affect processing, production, and product quality.

For whom?

You are a process engineer, mechanical engineer, food technologist or chemist with a bachelor or academic background and you are working in an industry where solids are processed or manufactured (powders, granules, etc.). Also as operator, analyst, or otherwise interested in these topics, one can greatly benefit from this course.