Designing and Disseminating
Better Health and Nutrition
Practices
Bulk Solids Innovation Center
Enhancing
Well-Being
Building and
Protecting Global
Food Systems
Enabling Impactful
Technologies
DECODING NATURE
Kansas State University Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities and Discovery Strengths
Overview
More than 80 percent of items transported around the world are bulk solids, or loose, dry commodities such as grain, sugar, starch,
minerals, chemicals, pigments, fillers, plastic resin, and recycled plastics. The Bulk Solids Innovation Center enables impactful
technologies and helps build and protect global food, feed, pharmaceutical, and health systems by
providing testing in both laboratory and real-world environments.
The center includes a two-story, 13,000-square-foot building, the only research facility of its kind in
North America. It houses material properties test laboratories, a full-scale bulk solids test bay with stateof-the-art systems, training/education and conference rooms, and customizable space for individual
projects. Available tools include: vacuum and pressure dilute phase, vacuum sequencing, and vacuum
and pressure vessel dense phase systems; rotary valve dense phase systems; batch weighing systems; and
zone blender, gravity flow, air filtration, feeding, mixing, and silo storage systems.
Impact
The center brings K-State experts together with industry to enhance understanding of the behavior of bulk solids and help businesses
that handle these materials maximize efficiency and productivity through better transport and handling practices as well as
systems design. University researchers, postdoctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students,
and local companies Vortex Valves and Coperion K-Tron provide a wealth of expert collaborators.
In addition to testing, the center offers flexible spaces and customizable professional development
courses in areas such as:
• Bulk solids handling
• Powder characterization and measurements
• Particulate air filtration
• Dust containment and collection
About Kansas State University
Kansas State University was established in 1863 as the nation’s first operational land-grant university. We’ve held firmly to the landgrant philosophy of serving our world through discovery and innovation. Today, the university is on its way to becoming a Top 50
public research university by 2025 through supporting, encouraging, and growing our research efforts.
1887 Agricultural Experiment Station
Important
points in time
for K-State
Research
1967 Alf Landon Lecture
built to analyze horticultural and
entomological subjects
1863 Kansas State University
1944 First U.S. patent application
founded
filed for a plastic container for
frozen foods
2015 National Bio and
Series on Public Issues
established
Agro-Defense Facility
groundbreaking
1997 Hale Library expansion
completed
$184.9 million in FY2014 research expenditures 4 USAID
RECENT SUCCESSES:
14 patents granted in 2014
$473.9 million
in FY2014 endowment
Office of the
Vice President for Research
Feed the Future Innovation Labs
1,000 research grants in FY2014
more than
4,300 graduate students
k-state.edu/research
@KState_RSCAD