(398e) Flow Regimes Transition and On-Lone Monitoring of Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed

The fluidized bed reactors can operate in different flow regimes. The reactor performance can change significantly as a result of flow regime change. It is very important to know how to identify the boundaries of the different flow regimes since reactor volume productivity, mixing, mass and heat transfer are affected by the prevailing flow regime. In this work implement a technique based on gamma ray densitometry (GRD) to identify and monitor on-line flow regime and pattern in 0.14 m ID Plexiglas fluidized bed. The flow regime and its transition will be first investigated using an optical probe and pressure transducer. Statistical analyses have been performed on the time series measurement of these techniques for identifying the flow regimes and their transitions Pressure transducer was measured at the wall while optical probe measured inside the bed and Gamma- ray densitometry for monitored on-line at different axial positions.

Based on the analysis notable differences were observed in flow regimes transition along the bed axial and radial locations particularly between the sparger (Z/D=0.286) and the fully developed flow (Z/D= 1.7) regions. There are slight variations between the flow regime transitions obtained using pressure transducer at the wall and those obtained inside the bed using optical probe and Gamma- ray densitometry at the studied height bed. Such information is needed for preparing a flow regime map and scale-up. Detailed data and findings will be discussed and presented in this talk.