49 1

Chem. Eng. Technol. 20 (1997) 491 -494

Slip Velocity Characteristics in the Riser of Circulating Fluidised Bed

N. Bala Subramanian and C Srinivasa Kannan*
Experiments were carried out in a conventional circulating fluidised bed to measure the
axial pressure profile and total pressure drop, which covered a wide range of operating conditions. Materials belonging to the Geldart A (fine material) as well as the Geldart B (coarse
material) categories have been used in the present work. Slip velocity is determined from
the total pressure drop and noticed that the slip velocity is much higher than the free fall
velocity of single particle for Geldart A type material, while it is approximately equal to
the free fall velocity of single particle for the Geldart B type materials.

A model is developed for slip velocity taking into account all the hindrance effects: particleparticle, particle-wall, and particle agglomeration. Predictions of the present model are
validated with the data due to present study and the data reported in the literature.

1 Introduction
Circulating fluidised beds are used for a number of processes, mainly gas-solid reactions such as calcination of aluminum hydroxide to high grade alumina, ore reduction, and
waste incineration. In recent years, circulating fluidised
beds are increasingly used in catalytic reactions like FCC
and the Fischer Tropsch Synthesis.
The behavior of circulating fluidised bed differs from a
conventional fluidised bed, because of absence of bubbles
and entrained flow of solids. A circulating fluidised bed
operates at much higher gas velocities than those used in
conventional fluidised bed and lower than those used in
pneumatic conveying. Extensive work has been reported on
circulating fluidised beds with respect to regime classification, flow structure, residence time distribution, and heat
transfer. The following summary can be made from a critical review of earlier investigations:
Variation of pressure drop with the solids circulation
rate is a sigmoid curve. The pressure drop is low and increases slowly at low solids rate. On the other hand, if
the pressure drop is high, it approaches an asymptotic
value at high solids rates. Pressure drop increases sharply with solids circulation between these two boundaries.
The region where low pressure drop is observed refers to
pneumatic conveying. The conventional fluidised bed
regime refers to the region of high pressure drop. The
fast fluidised bed regime occurs between these boundaries and the pressure drop (or) bed density depends not
only on solids rate but also on the gas velocity [l - 51.
In a fast fluidised bed, solids move in entrained flow.
Pressure drop along the riser length is divided into three
zones. A dense bed near the solids feed point, a dilute

* N. Bala Subramanian, Chemical Engineering Department, Indian

Institute of Technology, Madras-600036, India, Dr. C. Srinivasa
Kannan (author to whom correspondence should be addressed),
Chemical Engineering Division, Central Leather Research Institute,
Madras-600029, India.

0 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, D-69469 Weinheim, 1997

bed near the riser exit, and a transition zone between the
two. Inflection or transition point from dense bed to
dilute bed is marked where the second differential coefficient of axial pressure profile curve is equal to zero
[6 - 8). The pressure drop in dense as well as dilute beds
is significantly influenced by the flow rate of the phases
and particle characteristics.
- Slip velocity is higher than free fall velocity of single
particles and it varies from the bottom to the top of the
riser [9-111.
- Flow is assumed to be core-annulus [12, 131.
Though extensive work is reported on the basic aspects of
circulating fluidised bed, the work on slip velocity is very
limited. Knowledge of slip velocity is important as it directly influences the solids concentration and mean residence
time of solids. The present paper studies the slip velocity behavior in circulating fluidised bed and covers a wide variation of material characteristics (Tab. 1).
2 Experimental

The schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown

in Fig. 1; it consists of a riser ( 5 ) with a provision for continuously feeding the solids at a controlled rate from the
hopper (7). A gas solid separator ( 6 ) and a bag filter were
provided at the top of the riser for separating solids and
gases. The movement of solids is cocurrent upward with air
introduced at the bottom of the column. Air for fluidisation

Table 1. Material characteristics.

Sand
Sand
Resin
Resin
Silica gel
FCC

412
117
530
385
384
81

2650
2650
1480
1480
676
900

668 1
529
7941
3044
1378
17.2

0930-75 16/97/0709-0491 $17.50+ .50/0

492

Chem. Eng. Techno]. 20 (1997) 491 -494

bag

+To

filter

3.1 Slip Velocity

Slip velocity is an important design parameter as it influences the mean residence time of particle. Solids concentration
may be considered to depend upon the relative velocity (slip
velocity) between the phases [14], i.e.,

Slip velocity for two-phase system is defined as

u us
lJs,ip = A*--&

9-

1-&

Slip velocity defined as above refers to free fall velocity of

a single particle in an infinite medium. The plus and minus
sign refers to the flow direction of the phases. However, in
a medium of finite population of particle slip, velocity differs from free fall velocity due to the presence of other particles. It may be less than the free fall velocity, if the particles are retarded due to the presence of other particles, or
it may be higher than the free fall velocity, if the particles
have a tendency to form agglomerates.
Barena and Mizrahi [15] considered in detail all these
effects and gave the following equation for sedimentation
and fluidisation,

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up. 1, Air blower;

2, surge tank; 3, orifice meter; 4, quick closing valves; 5, test section;
6, gas-solid separator; 7, solids hopper; 8, solids control valve; 9, pressure tappings.

&

usljp
0'

[I + ( I - e l

1/3

(3)

1 exp- 5(1

-&)

3&

was drawn from a centrifugal blower (1) through a surge

tank (2) and a flow meter (3). Quick closing valves (4) were
provided at the solids feed point to facilitate the measurement of solids holdup in the riser. The riser was made of
perspex (52 mm i.d. and 2200 mm in height). The riser bottom had an opening of 25 mm for the feed solids. Air inlet
was provided just below the solids inlet. The top of the riser
projected into a gas-solid separator where the solids were
separated from the exit gas and returned to solids hopper.
Solids holdup was measured by arresting the quick closing
valves simultaneously. Pressure tappings were provided at
different locations for the measurement of pressure drop
along the riser length.
3 Results and Discussion

Fig. 2 shows the variation of pressure drop with solids circulation rate. It can be ascertained that the pressure drop is
less at low solids circulation rate and increases gradually
with solids circulation rate. Pressure drop is high and approaches an asymptotic value at high solids rate. In between
these boundaries, pressure drop increases sharply with
solids rate. It can also be ascertained that the pressure drop
decreases with increasing gas velocity for a given solids rate.
These observations qualitatively agree with the observations
reported in literature.

G, ( k g l r n2. 5 1
Figure 2. Variation of pressure drop with solids circulation rate.

493

Chem. Eng. Technol. 20 (1997) 491-494

Uslip/Uoin Eq. (3) represents the ratio of true fall velocity
of particle in a medium of finite population to free fall
velocity of particle in an infinite medium; E accounts for the
buoyancy effect. The term [ 1 + (1 - E ) " ~ ]in the denominator represents the hindrance effect due to the presence of
other particles. The exponential term accounts for the momentum transfer correction. Since the momentum transfer
effect and hindrance effect are shown in terms of solid concentration, Eq. (3) may be modified as

and
r

where c is the correction factor accounting for particle

agglomeration and m is an index to account for particleparticle and particle-wall effects. The corresponding drag
equation is written as

(4)
where n is 1 for creeping flow and 2/3 for intermediate
range of Reynolds number [1 c Re < 103].
Substituting the single particle free fall velocity in a finite
medium for Uo in Eq. (4) and rewriting for stokes and an
intermediate range of Reynolds number [16],

and

(9)
The index rn and correction factor c are evaluated from the
present experimental data. The index rn is found to be 0.7
for all the materials used in the present work. Correction
factor c is found to vary with particle characteristics.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of c with Archimedes number. It
can be noted that c decreases with increase in Archimedes
number; it is approximately one for coarse material [Ar>
lo3] and nearly four for fine material [Ar < 101. It indicates
that coarse material move more or less as individual particles while fine materials have a tendency to form agglomerates.

The development of Eqs. (5) and (6)do not consider the formation of particle agglomerates, which are reported to be
present in a circulating fluidised bed. The formation of agglomerates result in an increase in the effective particle
diameter. Taking into consideration Eqs. (5) and (6) may be
rewritten as

6.0

Material

dp(pm)

4.0

Sand
a Sand
0 Resin
X Resin
0 Silicagel
4- FCC

530
384

u
i I III ~ I

1 I l l l l

--

.-n

=0.1 I

10

I I I I IIII

I I I I IIII
1000

100

(7)

Ill11111
10000

Ar

Figure3. Variation of factor c with Archimedes number.

J"

*.Ot

tI / .# 7
1
I
I

1.0

Horio et al. (1986,1992)

Yerushalmi d, Cankurt

(1979)

2.0

3.0

uslip (exp.1

4 .o

Figure 4. Comparison of experimental data of present work and that

reported in literature with prediction using Eqs. (7) and (8).

494

Chem. Eng. Technol. 20 (1997) 491 -494

Model predictions using Eqs. (7) and (8) are validated with
the data of the present work and of that reported in the
literature (Fig. 4).

pg

e,
e,

[kg/ms] viscosity of gas

[kg/m3] density of gas
[kg/m3] density of solids

4 Conclusion

References

Experiments were carried out for the total pressure drop

and axial pressure profile covering a wide range in operating conditions. A model was developed for slip velocity that
takes to consideration of all the hindrance effects. It was
noticed from the present work that fine materials (Geldart
A) have the tendency to form agglomerates, while coarse
(Geldart B) materials move as individuals within the column.

111 Bala Subramanian, N., PhD Thesis, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras 1996.
[2] Adanez, J., Gayan, P., Garcia, F., Labiano, Diego, L.F. de,
Powder Technology 81 (1994) pp. 259-268.
[3] Yerushalmi, J., Cankurt, N.T., Geldard, D., Liss, B., AIChE
Symp. Series 74 (1978) No. 176, pp. 1-3.
[4] Rhodes, M.J., Geldart, D., Powder Technology 53 (1987)
pp. 155.
[5] Furchi, J. C. L., Goldstein, Jr., Lombordi, L., Mohseni, M., Experimental local heat transfer in a circulating fiuidised bed, in:
Circulating Fluidised Bed Technology II (Baeu, P., Large, L. F.,
Eds.) Pergamon Press, Canada 1988, pp. 263.
[6] Choi, J.H., Yi, C.K., Son, J.E., Axial voidage profile in a cold
mode circulating fluidised bed, in: Circulating Fluidised Bed
Technology III (Baeu, P., Horio, M., Hasatani, M., Eds.)
Pergamon Press, Canada 1991, pp. 131.
[7] Kato, K., Hishibasaki, Tamura, K., Arita, S., Wang, W . ,
Takarada, T., J. of Chem. Engg. Jpn. 22 (1989) pp. 30.
[8] Kunii, D., Levenspiel, O., Powder Technology 61 (1990) pp. 193.
[9] Yerushalmi, J., Cankurt, N.T., Chem. Engg. Tech. (1978)
pp. 564.
[lo] Yang, Y.L., Jin, Y., Yo, Z.Q., Zhu, J.X., Bi, H.T., AIChE
Symposium Series 89 (1993) pp. 81.
[ l l ] Bala Subramanian, N., Srinivasa Kannan, C., Hungarian, J. of
Industrial Chemistry, in press.
[12] Ishiji, H., Nakajima, T., Horio, M., J. of Chem. Engg. Jpn. 22
(1989) pp. 484.
[13] Rhodes, M. J., Powder Technology 60 (1990) pp. 27.
[14] Lapidus, L., Elgin, J.C., AIChE J. 3 (1957) pp. 63.
[15] Barnea, E., Mizrahi, J., Chem. Eng. J . 5 (1973) pp. 171.
[16] Kunii, D., Levenspiel, O . , Fluidisation Engineering, John Wiley
& Sons, New York 1969.

Received: August 28, 1996 [CET 8491

Symbols used
Archimedes number
correction factor
drag coefficient
particle sauter mean diameter
acceleration due to gravity
index
index
Reynolds number
characteristic velocity
superficial solids velocity
superficial gas velocity
slip velocity
terminal velocity
bed voidage