ABSTRACT
Due to an uncontrolled increase of pollution in the ecosystem, very tight environmental regulations were recently enforced in most industrialized countries, and the producers of condensed silica fume were asked to collect the silica fumes and not allow them to escape into the atmosphere. Even if the containment of condensed silica fume can be solved by using very tight connections between the different parts of the dedusting and handling system, because of its low specific weight, very large storage facilities have to be designed to store it temporarily in a plant. Some plants in the world are equipped with composing micropelletizing systems, but the main problem with this is that it is a slow process. It requires several days to achieve the desired level of densification. The transportation and handling of a dry powder is more familiar to the cement and concrete producers than the transportation of slurry.
