Binderless granulation—its potential, achievements and future issues

Binderless granulation with a fluidized bed, particularly with pressure swing action (PSG: pressure swing granulation), is a promising technology for material and pharmaceutical industries. In this lecture, the principle, advantages and the state of the art of PSG technology are reviewed focusing on its successful application in hard metal cutting tool manufacturing and some promising evidence in terms of pharmaceutical application. After a critical review of mechanistic but macroscopic models for binderless granulation, the development and validation of authorʹs model are presented. Computer simulation of agglomerating fluidization by discrete element method (DEM) is demonstrated to validate the model assumptions and the predicted values. Finally, future research and development directions are discussed stressing the significance of nano-characterization of particle surfaces.