Cycle Times in Sawdust Conical Spouted Beds Equipped with Fountain Confiner and Draft Tube

A study has been conducted on the joint influence of the fountain confiner and draft tube on the solid circulation in a conical spouted bed made up of sawdust. Knowledge of the performance of these fine particles of low density and irregular texture is required in both physical chemical and processes, such as drying, pyrolysis, or combustion of these materials in conical spouted beds. The study has been carried out according to a factorial design of experiments. The cycle times follow different distributions depending on the configuration of the contactor-draft tube-fountain confiner. The spouted beds equipped with only fountain confiner are those with the more uniform distribution and lowest cycles times. Therefore, this device provides high stability and ensures high turbulence to the beds formed by fine and irregular particles, with a behavior similar to that of stable beds made up of coarse particles, in which no internal device is required.