Effect of Superficial Gas Velocity on the Solid Temperature Distribution in Gas Fluidized Beds with Heat Production
The hydrodynamics and heat transfer of cylindrical gas–solid fluidized beds for polyolefin production was investigated with the two-fluid model (TFM) based on the kinetic theory of granular flow (KTGF). It was found that the fluidized bed becomes more isothermal with increasing superficial gas velocity. This is mainly due to the increase of solids circulation and improvement in gas solid contact. It was also found that the average Nusselt number weakly depends on the gas velocity. The TFM results were qualitatively compared with simulation results of computational fluid dynamics combined with the discrete element model (CFD-DEM). The TFM results were in very good agreement with the CFD-DEM outcomes, so the TFM can be a reliable source for further investigations of fluidized beds especially large lab-scale reactors
Numerical and experimental investigation on air distributor design of fluidized bed reactor of sawdust pyrolysis
Abstract An improved biomass conversion in a lab-scale fluidized bed reactor (FBR) is achieved by optimizing the air distributor orifice size and number. Two approaches for introducing air were numerically and experimentally examined. These included perforated plate and downward orifice sparger. 3 mm and 5 mm orifice diameters, and 7, 9 and 13 holes were simulated at flow velocities of 2, 4, 6, and 8 times the minimum fluidization velocity, Umf. The simulation results revealed that increasing the orifice number has a positive effect on gas holdup, particularly for the perforated plate, which showed a uniform distribution of bubbles. The sparger configuration produced larger bubbles sizes, which could lead to better recirculation of solid flux, while stagnant particle zones were observed at the lower section of both distributors. A pyrolysis unit is also inserted at the top of freeboard of the FBR. For perforated plate with 6Umf, the pyrolysis process achieved thermal and cold gas efficiencies of 82.91% and 52.03%, respectively, while combustible gases with 41.6%mol CO, 8.7%mol CH 4 and 2.17%mol HC, were obtained. For sparger pipe and 6U mf _sp, 35.33 ppm NOx and 111 ppm SO 2 were measured in flue gas from combustion process at bed region.
Thermodynamics on the Carbochlorination of Titanium-bearing Ores
The equilibrium compositions of the multi-component, multi-phase and multi-reaction system of carbochlorination of titanium-bearing ores are calculated with HSC, a computational chemistry software. The thermodynamic equilibrium calculation of the reaction system shows that a complete conversion of titanium-bearing ores is feasible at a temperature near 200oC. At temperatures ranging from 800 to 1600oC, the products of the reaction system are all in gaseous phase. Thermodynamic analysis accords with the industrial practice. The simulated results provide reasonable scientific basis for improving suitable technological conditions of the carbochlorination reduction.