CH EN 6553

Chemical Reaction
Engineering
Fluidized Bed Systems
Fluidized Bed Basics
Gas pushed through a bed of solids until i t
lifts, bubbles and fluidizes
When fluidized, behaves like liquid...
Types of Fluidized Beds
Bubbling fluidized beds
Circulating fluidized beds
Fast fluidized beds (transport reactors)
Spouting beds
Interconnected fluidized beds
Fluidization Regimes
Industrial Applications
Drying
Catalytic cracking
Combustion / gasification of solid fuels
Gas scrubbing
Fluid Cat Cracker (FCC)
Bubbling Bed Coal Combustion
CFB Combustion
Gasifier
Designs
Twin Fluidized Bed Gasifier
Particle / Bed Considerations
Pressure drop
Particle types
Spherici ty
Voidage
Packed vs. Fluidized Bed
!
mf
for various materials
Example...
What is the minimum (superficial) fluidization
veloci ty of beach sand that has been sieved to a
size range of 150-250 microns and is being used
as bed material in a gas stream at 950C?
Data: " = 2 x 10
5
kg/ms
#
s
= 2600 kg/m
3
If that is the minimum fluidization veloci ty,
what veloci ty should we target for our bubbling
fluidized bed?
Geldart Classification of Particles
Spherici ty and Voidage
Spherici ty = area of sphere / area of particle
Voidage = empty space bet ween particles
Packing densi ty
Terminal Veloci ty versus Particle Size
Bubble Structure
The Wake
Bubble Characteristics
Modeling Fluidized Beds
Gas Distribution Designs
Plate or grate distributors
Bubble caps
Spargers
Grate Distributors
Bubble Cap Distributors
Spargers
Bubble Behavior
Bubble structure
Bubble formation
Bed slugging
Bubble Behavior
The Dreaded Slugging Bed
Heat Transfer in Fluidized Beds
Heat Transfer in Fluidized Beds
Heat Transfer
Determination of heating/cooling load?
Best method of heating/cooling?
How to design the heating/cooling system?
Fluidized Bed Design Considerations
Gas flow
What type of flow is i t?
Differential or integral reactor?
Veloci ty profile along length of the bed?
Reactor diameter vs. superficial veloci ty vs.
residence time vs. gas reactant flow per feed rate
of reacting solids
Fluidized Bed Design Considerations
Particles
What type of flow for the particles?
For reacting particles, what is the reaction rate?
Fluidized Bed Design Considerations
Bed
Is there a practical upper limi t to bed height?
How much power is required to fluidize the system?
Is there a risk of agglomeration?
Particle attri tion and elutriation?
Bed growth?