Introduction to
Fluidized Bed Technology
J. Ruud van Ommen
Reactor & Catalysis Engineering
Delft University of Technology
E-mail:
[email protected] Glatt Seminar 18 March 2003
Introduction
Fluidized bed:
particles suspended
in an upward
gas stream
drag force
equals
gravitational force
Outline
Classification: Particle size
Hydrodynamic regime (~ gas velocity)
Lay-out
Design
Applications
Typical properties: Low pressure drop
Heat and mass transfer
Erosion / measurements
Segregation and agglomeration
Modelling
Summary
References
Geldart’s powder classification
Geldart’s powder classification
C Drag
A
Attraction
Cohesive Aeratable
0-30 µm 30-100 µm
flour Gravity milk powder
B D
Bubbling Spoutable
100-1000 µm >1000 µm
sand coffee beans
Geldart’s powder classification
A powder (30-100 µm) B powder (100-1000 µm)
maximum bubble size bubbles keep on growing
From CD-ROM: Laboratory Demonstrations in Particle Technology, M. Rhodes
Geldart’s powder classification
C powder (<30 µm) D powder (>1000 µm)
very cohesive spouted fluidization
From CD-ROM: Laboratory Demonstrations in Particle Technology, M. Rhodes
Influence of particle size distribution
1.0
20
15
mass%
10
5
Conversion [-]
0
0 50 100 150
particle diameter [micron] 0.5
20 wide size distribution
15
mass%
narrow size distribution
10
5
0 0.0
0 4 8
Adapted from Sun & Grace (1990) Dimensionless kinetic rate constant [-]
Fluidization Regimes
fixed bed bubbling turbulent fast pneumatic
fluidization transport
homogeneous slugging
solids returns
solids returns
solids returns
gas gas gas gas gas
gas gas
only A powders only narrow beds
at low gas velocity
gas velocity
Fluidized bed lay-outs
laterally staged bed
circulating
bed
vertically
turbulent staged bed
bed
bubbling
bed
spouted bed
twin bed
riser
downer floating bed
Fluidized bed design
product gas
cyclones
freeboard
heat
exchange
tubes
reactant gas windbox/plenum
Applications
Physical processes: Chemical processes:
heat exchange Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC)
drying Synthesis reactions (e.g., vinyl acetate,
coating phtalic anhydride, acrylonitrile)
granulation Polymerization of olefines
(ethylene, propylene)
gas purification
via adsorption Silicon production
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of gasoline
Fluid Coking and Flexi-Coking
Coal / biomass / waste combustion
Coal / biomass / waste gasification
Low pressure drop
Packed bed
pressure
drop
gas velocity
Fluidized bed
pressure Lower pressure drop
drop lower power costs
onset of fluidization
gas velocity
Heat and mass transfer
Heat transfer: particle to wall or internal
Mass transfer: gas to particle
Fluidized beds show an excellent heat transfer
Mixing of solids by (large) bubbles Æ
almost constant temperature throughout the reactor
However, large bubbles
decrease the mass transfer
Research Æ decrease bubble size
Bubble:
shortcut Interstitial gas:
of gas effective
Ways to decrease the bubble size
Vibration Electric field
Magnetic field 1
rel.
bubble
size
0.6
0 field strength [kV/cm] 5
Mori et al., Nagoya Rosensweig, Exxon
Inst of Techn. Kleijn van Willigen et al.,
TU Delft
Pulsed gas
Fractal injector injection Optimizing
particle properties
Coppens and Lems, Coppens et al.,
Van Ommen et al.,
TU Delft TU Delft
TU Delft
Erosion / measurements
Fluidized bed:
• often high temperature
• often chemically aggressive Erosion
• large mechanical stress
Cross-sectional picture
of thermocouple
(Sethi et al., Kentucky Energy
Cabinet Lab.)
High erosion rate Only few measurement
Opaque nature techniques are available!
Industrial fluidized beds: only pressure and temperature
measurements on a routinely base.
Segregation and agglomeration
Difference in size and/or
Agglomeration problems
density can lead to
occur in various fluidized
segregation of the particles.
bed processes
More information
Æ presentation ‘Agglomeration
Hoomans, Kuipers, et al., detection’ this afternoon
Twente University
Modelling
Simple engineering models Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
‘Two fluid’ model Discrete particle model
Two-region model
Levenspiel,
Oregon State Univ. Van Wachem, Van den Bleek, Hoomans, Kuipers, et al.,
et al., Delft Univ. of Techn. Twente Univ.
Models still show shortcomings Æ scaling-up remains troublesome
Summary
Fluidized bed: particles suspended in a gas stream
Particle size and gas velocity strongly influence the
fluidized bed behaviour
Large range of application and many different lay-out
+ Low pressure drop
+ Heat transfer
+/- Mass transfer
- Erosion
- Segregation & agglomeration
Improvement of models is still continuing
More information
Books:
Fluidization Engineering, Kunii & Levenspiel, ISBN 0409902330
Gas Fluidization, Mell Pell, ISBN 0444883355
Circulating Fluidized Beds, Grace, ISBN 0751402710
Articles:
Review turbulent fluidization, Bi et al., Chem.Eng.Sci. (2000) 55, pp. 4789
Measurement techniques, Werther, Powder Technol., 102 (1999) pp. 15
Web-sites:
Tutorials: www.erpt.org/technoar/fluidbed.htm
This presentation: www.dct.tudelft.nl/~vanommen
