Fluidization

has been a key technology in Fluid Catalytic

Cracking (FCC) to make gasoline in petroleum
industry
in catalytic processes such as partial oxidation of
ammonia to acrylonitrile to prepare acrylic resin
in gas phase polymerization processes of
polyethylene and polypropylene
in chlorination process of metals such as silicon
for purification in the semiconductor industry
in granulation process for the pharmaceutical
industry
in fluidized bed combustion (FBC) of solid fuels
(coal,waste and biomass) to generate steam for
boilers
in waste incineration of solid and sludge
drying, dip powder coating , thermal treatment of
metals by hot or cold sand

Fluidized bed dryer
Temperature Sensor
Pressure Inlet Sensor
Pressure Outlet Sensor
Air Inlet
FLUIDIZATION


A fluidized bed is formed
by passing a fluid usually a
gas upwards through a
bed of particles supported
on a distributor.
As a fluid is passed
upward through a bed of
particles, pressure loss
due to frictional resistance
increases as fluid flow
increases.
At a point, upward drag
force exerted by the fluid
on the particle equal to
apparent weight of
particles in the bed.


W
F
F F = drag force
W = apparent
weight
FLUIDIZED BED
Characteristics of Gas Fluidized Bed

Bed behaves like liquid of the same bulk
density can add or remove particles,
pressure-depth relationship, wave motion,
heavy objects sink, and light ones float.

Rapid particle motion good solid mixing

Very large surface area available 1m
3
of
100 m particles has a surface area of
about 30,000 m
2
, and 1 m
3
of 50 m
particles 60,000 m
2
.

Characteristics of Gas Fluidized Bed

Good heat transfer from surface to bed,
and gas to particles.

Isothermal conditions radially and axially.

Pressure drop through bed depends only
on bed depth and particle density does
not increase with gas velocity.

Advantages of Fluidized Bed


High mobility
Gives superb heat transfer, which usually always a problem
to powders.
Heavily used for drying eg: pharmaceutical industry.
Excellent reactors

Good temperature control
A perfect gas/liquid mixing equipment.

Very flexible
Can carry out many processes in a single vessel.
Mix, dry, granule, separate etc. in one vessel.

Less number of moving parts
Easy to handle

DISADVANTAGES
Costly
Blowing air into the system.
Trap air to make it fluidized.
Cleaning process
Some powders costly in operation than others.

Not all particles fluidized
Cohesive and large particles are difficult to
fluidize.

Difficult distributor design
Maldistribution of fluidizing gas
AP across distributor = 30% of bed AP.

PRESSURE DROP
The force balance;
Pressure drop=
Weight of particles - up thrust on particle
Bed cross - sectional area

For a bed of particle density,
p
, fluidized by a fluid
with
f
to form a bed of depth, H and voidage, c in a
vessel of cross sectional area, A;

( )( )
A
g HA
P
f p
c
= A
1
( )( )g H P
f p
c = A 1
PRESSURE DROP
For a flow of fluid through a packed
bed, two distinct types of flow
involved. They are laminar and
turbulent flow.
The pressure drop across a fluidized
bed is the only parameter which can
be accurately predicted:
AP
F
cm w.g.
A
Mg
P
F
= A
A
M 1 . 0
=
where M in kg and A in m
2
.
c
mf
is the bed voidage at U
mf
and a
close approximation to it can be
obtained by measuring the aerated or
most loosely packed bulk density,
bLP
.

Equations are used to predict the
theoretical pressure drop comparing to
experimental one.

( )( )g
H
P
g p mf
F
c =
A
1
Laminar flow
Through the work of
Darcy and Poiseuille, it
has been known for
more than 120 years
that the average
velocity through a
packed bed, or
through a pipe, is
proportional to the
pressure gradient.

Pressure gradient
fluid velocity




Based on Carmen-
Kozeny (1927, 1933
and 1937),

( )
U
H
P

A
( ) ( )
3 2
2
1 180
c
c
p
d
U
H
P
=
A
Carmen-
Kozeny equation
for laminar flow.
TURBULENT FLOW
Burke Plumme equation for turbulent
flow through a randomly packed bed
of monosized spheres of diameter, d
p
.
( )
( )
3
2
1 75 . 1
c
c
p
g
d
U
H
P

=
A
Laminar and turbulent flow
Based on experimental data covering a
wide range of size and shape of
particles, Ergun (1952) suggested the
following general equation for any flow
conditions;
Ergun equation

( ) ( )
( )
3
2
3 2
2
1 75 . 1
1 150
c
c
c
c
p
g
p
d
U
d
U
H
P

+

=
A
Laminar
component
Turbulent
component
Reynold number,

For Re* < 10, laminar flow
For Re* > 2000, turbulent flow
Ergun also expressed flow through a
packed bed in terms of friction factor;

Friction factor,

Compare this friction factor with
Fanning friction factor.Then it
becomes
( ) c

=
1
Re
*
U d
g p
( )
( ) c
c

A
=
1
*
3
2
U
d
H
P
f
g
p
75 . 1
Re*
150
* + = f
with for Re* < 10
and for Re* > 2000
For non-spherical particles; d
p
is
replaced by d
sv,
then,

Re*
150
* = f
75 . 1 * = f
( ) ( )
( )
3
2
3 2
2
1 75 . 1
1 150
c
c
c
c
sv
g
sv
d
U
d
U
H
P

+

=
A
The surface/volume size, d
sv
is used: if only sieve sizes are
available, depending on the particle shape, an approximation
can be used for non-spherical particles;
p sv
d d 87 . 0 ~
p v
d d 13 . 1 =
Recalling,

where d
p
is the mean sieve size.

Minimum Fluidization Velocity, U
mf
.

A plot of pressure drop across the bed vs. fluid velocity


Line OA packed bed region. Solid
particles do not move relative to one another
and their separation is constant.
Region BC: fluidized bed region
Point A: AP higher than predicted value n.




A Bed pressure
drop, Ap
Gas velocity, U
B
O
C
U
mf
Ap Ap Ap
This is due to powders, which have been
compacted to some extent before the
fluidization process takes place.

Higher AP is associated with the extra
force required to overcome inter particle
attractive forces.

Minimum fluidization velocity, U
mf
:
superficial fluid velocity at packed bed
becomes a fluidized bed (as marked on
graph).

Also known as incipient fluidization
velocity.

U
mf
increases with particle size and particle
density and affected by fluid properties.
Recalling Ergun (1952) for any flow
condition;
(1)

and (2)
substituting (1) into (2),


Rearrange:



( ) ( )
( )
3
2
3 2
2
1 75 . 1
1 150
c
c
c
c
sv
g
sv
d
U
d
U
H
P

+

=
A
( )( )g H P
f p
c = A 1
( )( )
( ) ( )
3
2
3 2
2
1 75 . 1 1 150
1
c
c
c
c
c
sv
mf g
sv
mf
f p
d
U
d
U
g

+

=
( )( )
( )
( )
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|

+
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|

=
2
2 2 2
3
2
3
3
2
3
2
. .
1 75 . 1
. .
1 150
1

c
c

c
c
c
f sv mf
sv f
f sv mf
sv f
f p
d U
d
d U
d
g
( )( )
( )
( )
2
,
3
,
3
2
2
3
.
1 75 . 1
.
1 150
1
mf e
mf e
sv f
f p
R
R
d
g
c
c
c
c

=
|
|
.
|

\
|

( ) ( )
2
,
3
,
3
2
.
1 75 . 1
.
1 150
mf e mf e
R R Ar
c
c
c
c
+

=
( )
2
3

sv f p f
gd
Ar

=

sv mf f
d U
= Re
or
where,
Archimedes number
- Reynolds number
Wen and Yu (1966) correlation
for U
mf
.






for spheres ranging 0.01 < R
e,mf
< 1000

used for particles larger than 100 m
use d
v
instead of d
sv
for Wen and Yu

Please check the Wen & Yu correlation in determining U
mf

from Data Booklet.

687 . 1
, ,
159 1060
mf e mf e
R R Ar + =
( ) | | 1 10 59 . 3 1 7 . 33
5 . 0
5
,
+ =

Ar R
mf e
or
Baeyens and Geldart



for particles, d
p
< 100 m;


( )
066 . 0
f
87 . 0
f
8 . 1
p
934 . 0
934 . 0
f p
mf
1110
d g
U


=
Assignment
A bed of angular sand of mean sieve size
778 m is fluidized by air. The particle
density is 2540 kg/m
3
,
g
(air) = 18.4
10
-6
kg/ms,
g
= 1.2 kg/m
3
and 24.75 kg
of the sand are charged to the bed 0.216
m in diameter. The bed height at
incipient fluidization is 0.447 m. Find;
c
mf

The pressure drop across the bubbling
bed in cm water gauge.
The incipient fluidization velocity, U
mf
.