An Evaluation of Factors Influencing the Energy-Efficient Operation of Well-Mixed Fluidized Bed Dryers

This article describes the results of calculations of specific energy consumption, E_s, performed on a well-mixed fluidized bed dryer simulator. Exhaust air temperature-humidity loci required to yield a specified outlet moisture content were also determined. Most of the calculations related to solids whose drying rate was gas-film controlled. Six model drying curves were employed to examine the effects of drying rate and hygroscopicity in addition to the normal operating parameters. The results indicated that E_s was highest for slow-drying hygroscopic solids and lowest for fast-drying, non-hygroscopic solids. Specific energy consumption increased with decreasing bed temperature and outlet moisture content and with increasing heat loss but was independent of solids loading and airflow rate. For both the aforementioned solids and a much slower drying material (wheat), there was close agreement between the zero heat loss data and a single theoretical curve approximating the performance of an ideal adiabatic dryer. Distinct differences between the behavior of well-mixed and plug flow fluidized bed dryers are reported.     

Stochastic Modeling of Fluidized Bed Agglomeration: Determination of Particle Moisture Content

The present study describes the theoretical modeling of particle formation by agglomeration in fluidized beds. The model is mathematically solved by applying a stochastic Monte Carlo method. It takes into account the complete droplet history (predrying during flight, spreading, solidification and penetration after deposition on a particle) so that thermal effects such as the increase in fluidization gas mass flow or gas temperature have a physically based impact on process kinetics. Contradictions between measured and simulated particle moisture contents were found. Thus, we present a modified drying model and compare results with experimental data.     

Sugarcane Bagasse Drying in a Cyclone: Influence of Device Geometry and Operational Parameters

Sugarcane bagasse is becoming more and more commonly used in generating electrical energy, steam, and bioethanol. Drying is important in sugarcane and other types of biomass because it can be used to improve the calorific value and overall energetic use. In this work, sugarcane bagasse was treated by drying in a cyclonic dryer. The influence of the geometry of the device (the conical part of the cyclone) and process parameters (bagasse mass flow rate and temperature) were tested. The modification on the conical part was related to two different angles and with two different inferior outlets (B). Experimental design was carried out for each geometry. The independent variables were the drying agent temperature (35 to 275°C) and the bagasse mass flow rate (0.1 × 10^?2 to 2.9 × 10^?2 kg s^?1). The air flow rate was kept constant at 7.5 × 10^?2 kg s^?1. The dependent variables were moisture reduction (MR) and average particle residence time (t_res) in the cyclonic dryer. For both cyclonic geometries, it was observed that MR was directly proportional to the temperature and inversely proportional to the bagasse mass flow rate. t_res was also inversely proportional to the bagasse mass flow rate. Decreasing B tended to increase tres and MR.     

Modeling the temperature in coal char particle during fluidized bed combustion

The temperatures of a coal char particle in hot bubbling fluidized bed (FB) were analyzed by a model of combustion. The unsteady model includes phenomena of heat and mass transfer through a porous char particle, as well as heterogeneous reaction at the interior char surface and homogeneous reaction in the pores. The parametric analysis of the model has shown that above 550 °C combustion occurs under the regime limited by diffusion. The experimental results of temperature measurements by thermocouple in the particle center during FB combustion at temperatures in the range 590-710 °C were compared with the model predictions. Two coals of different rank were used: lignite and brown coal, with particle size in the range 5-10 mm. The comparisons have shown that the model can adequately predict the histories of temperatures in char particles during combustion in FB. In the first order, the model predicts the influence of the particle size, coal rank (via porosity), and oxygen concentration in its surroundings.     

热泵干燥装置的应用和发展分析

在简要介绍热泵干燥装置基本结构和工作原理的基础上，对热泵干燥装置的特点、市场拓展、应用与推广中的主要问题和解决思路、技术发展等进行了较全面的分析，为科学地把握和应用热泵干燥技术提供了较好的参考。     

Heat transfer in fluidized beds: design methods

Large-scale fluidized beds for commercial processes commonly require heat transfer surfaces. Design then demands that heat transfer coefficients be specified. Empirical correlations are unable to cover the wide range of variables and conditions encountered. Mechanistic models are more reliable, but must be chosen carefully. For bubbling beds, the packet model approach gives reasonable predictions for the convective component of transfer, but further work is required to provide reliable estimates of two required time constants, dependent on the hydrodynamics. For industrial-scale circulating beds, a mechanistic model that incorporates the key factors influencing heat transfer, assumes fully developed transfer, and utilizes results from large-scale units is recommended.     

Investigation of Aggregation Kernel and Simulation of Cohesive Particle Flow

A modified model coupled with the population balance equation has been developed to simulate the aggregation process in fluidized beds. The population balance equation is solved as part of computational fluid dynamics simulation by the direct quadrature method of moments. In the simulation, the aggregation rate is controlled by the aggregation kernel which is usually obtained by theoretical derivation and is difficult to verify experimentally. The aggregation kernel is investigated by the discrete element method and the performance of the proposed model for simulating cohesive particle flow in fluidized beds is evaluated. Simulation results are compared to the experimental data and show good agreement. A comparison between different models is also carried out.     

Numerical simulation on fluidization characteristics of tobacco particles in fluidized bed dryers

Three-dimensional simulations have been carried out to examine the gas–particle flow behavior of tobacco material in a fluidized bed dryer. The Euler–Euler model has been used to study the distribution of particles in the fluidized bed dryer. The simulation results indicate that tobacco particles usually concentrate in the near-wall region, and there exists a maximum particle concentration in the feed pipe. The predictions on the regions with high concentration of particles in the fluidized bed dryer agree well with the experimental findings. Moreover, this kind of dynamic particle aggregation might lead to particle clusters, and investigations of the particle motion and mixing behavior in the simulated systems indicate that there are particle clusters during fluidization. The diverse nature of clusters enriches the flow behaviors of particles and consequently leads to the macro-scale heterogeneity featuring fast fluidization: dilute at the top and dense at the bottom in the axial direction as well as the core–annulus structure in the radial direction. Therefore, the particle clusters is one of the key problems in drying processes, which must be known for understanding the material distribution inside the dryer, as well as for the system design of fluidized bed dryers. According to the results, some improvements on the fluidized bed dryer have been brought out and the relative numerical experiments have been performed. The numerical experiments show that the improvements can realize better uniformity and lead to a decrease in the particle concentration, which provides useful ways to solve the clustering problem.     

小颗粒油页岩干馏技术探讨

主要介绍了国内、外小颗粒油页岩的处理技术,针对国内的三种加工工艺和国外的两种加工工艺所涉及到的五种炉型工艺进行比较,得出用回转炉处理小颗粒页岩的结论及用干馏瓦斯做外热式回转炉的燃料气、用外热式回转窑处理小颗粒页岩的设想。     

Modeling of fuel mixing in fluidized bed combustors

This paper presents a three-dimensional model for fuel mixing in fluidized bed combustors. The model accounts for mixing patterns which were experimentally shown to govern mixing in risers with geometry and operational conditions representative for furnaces in fluidized bed combustors. The mixing process is modeled for three different solid phases in the furnace and the model, which includes the return leg, can be applied both under bubbling and circulating regimes. The semi-empirical basis of the model was previously validated in different large-scale fluidized bed combustors and is combined with a model for fuel particle conversion to obtain the fuel concentration field. Model results are compared with experimental data from the Chalmers 12 MW_th CFB combustor, yielding a reasonable agreement.     

Experimental Investigation and Modeling of Plug-Flow Fluidized Bed Drying Under Steady-State Conditions

In this study, a model for a plug-flow fluidized bed dryer under steady-state conditions was presented. The model was based on differential equations; thus the bed of the dryer was divided horizontally and vertically into major and minor control volumes, respectively. Each control volume was composed of two thermodynamic systems: solid and gas. The mass and energy balances of the particles in the major control volume based on the axial dispersion were developed to derive the axial profiles of solid moisture content and temperature. To derive the variation of gas humidity and temperature along the bed height and hence the axial profiles of outlet gas humidity and temperature, the mass and energy balances in the gas over the minor control volume, considering the plug flow of gas through the bed, were developed. The model was validated by comparing the simulation results with the experimental data obtained by drying the long-grain rough rice under steady-state conditions in a laboratory-scale, plug-flow fluidized bed dryer. A very satisfactory agreement between the simulation and the experimental data of solid moisture content, solid temperature, and outlet gas humidity and temperature was achieved. Also, the effects of inlet gas temperature, weir height, and inlet dry solid mass flow rate on the simulated axial profiles of solid moisture content and temperature, humidity difference between inlet and outlet gas, and outlet gas temperature were investigated.     

Drying of Inorganic Particulate Compounds

Inorganic particulates are usually dried in a fixed bed, fluidized bed, or spray dryers. These compounds are easy to dry, once their physical structure, with high porosity, allows moisture content removal with low resistances. For fluidized bed of alumina particle evaluations, a laboratory-scale drying unit was built. The drying experiments were carried out with alumina particles with different diameters to evaluate temperature and air flow rate effects on drying kinetics and bed height. In another case, the dehydration of a mixture of rare-earth chlorides in a fluidized bed was studied, aiming at the production of anhydrous rare-earth chlorides, used to obtain mischmetal by electrolytic and metallothermic processes. The spray drying experiments were carried out in a pilot plant. Spray drying is a technique largely applied in industrial processes to dry solutions or suspensions, converting their solid parts into a dried powder. A set of rare-earth drying experiments was carried out, aiming at the development of techniques to obtain a powder that could satisfy international morphological requirements. The results allowed evaluating the effects of air flow rate, feed concentration, atomizer model, rotation velocity, and atomization pressure on powder density and particle size distribution.     

Drying of Inorganic Particulate Compounds

ABSTRACT

Inorganic particulates are usually dried in a fixed bed, fluidized bed, or spray dryers. These compounds are easy to dry, once their physical structure, with high porosity, allows moisture content removal with low resistances. For fluidized bed of alumina particle evaluations, a laboratory-scale drying unit was built. The drying experiments were carried out with alumina particles with different diameters to evaluate temperature and air flow rate effects on drying kinetics and bed height. In another case, the dehydration of a mixture of rare-earth chlorides in a fluidized bed was studied, aiming at the production of anhydrous rare-earth chlorides, used to obtain mischmetal by electrolytic and metallothermic processes. The spray drying experiments were carried out in a pilot plant. Spray drying is a technique largely applied in industrial processes to dry solutions or suspensions, converting their solid parts into a dried powder. A set of rare-earth drying experiments was carried out, aiming at the development of techniques to obtain a powder that could satisfy international morphological requirements. The results allowed evaluating the effects of air flow rate, feed concentration, atomizer model, rotation velocity, and atomization pressure on powder density and particle size distribution.     

Effects of germination time and drying temperature on drying characteristics and quality of germinated paddy

Germination time and drying temperature are very important parameters affecting the quality of the germinated paddy (GP) since the microstructure of starch granules is modified during germination. The experimental results showed that the germination time increasing from 60 to 68 h provided more loosely-packed starch granules, lower hardness of cooked GP, higher γ-aminobutyric acid content (GABA) and larger number of fissured GP after drying. However, the modified microstructure did not cause a difference between drying curves at each germination time. Prediction results of the moisture content from the two-layer model were in good agreement with the experimental results and also showed that the effective moisture diffusion coefficient values of husk were significantly lower than those of germinated brown rice. Drying at a higher drying temperature could reduce the number of fissured GP more significantly. The hardness of cooked GP samples and their GABA contents obtained from drying temperatures changed insignificantly from that of the shade-dried GP. The sensory analysis results revealed that the texture of GP was better than that of the rice without germination and the longer germination time provided the adverse effect on the fermentation odour and texture.     

Fundamentals of coal topping gasification: Characterization of pyrolysis topping in a fluidized bed reactor

Coal topping gasification refers to a process that extracts the volatiles contained in coal into gas and tar rich in chemical structures in advance of gasification. The technology can be implemented in a reactor system coupling a fluidized bed pyrolyzer and a transport bed gasifier in which coal is first pyrolyzed in the fluidized bed before being forwarded into the transport bed for gasification. The present article is devoted to investigating the pyrolysis of lignite and bituminite in a fluidized bed reactor. The results showed that the highest tar yield appeared at 823 to 923 K for both coals. When coal ash from CFB boiler was used as the bed material, obvious decreases in the yields of tar and pyrolysis gas were observed. Pyrolysis in a reaction atmosphere simulating the pyrolysis gas composition of coal resulted in a higher production of tar. Under the conditions of using CFB boiler ash as the bed material and the simulated pyrolysis gas as the reaction atmosphere, the tar yields for pyrolytic topping in a fluidized bed reactor was about 11.4 wt.% for bituminite and 6.5 wt.% for lignite in dry ash-free coal base.     

Numerical Simulation of Particle Segregation in Vibration Fluidized Beds

The influence of vibration parameters on the segregation phenomenon of a binary mixture in a vibration fluidized bed is investigated. Initially, the mixture composed of spherical balls with different densities but same diameter is in a perfect mixing state in the bed. The motion of particles is simulated based on the discrete element method. The effects of friction coefficient, vibration frequency, amplitudes, and gas velocity are analyzed. The coefficient of segregation to the degree of particle segregation is calculated for different operating conditions. The segregation degree in the vibration fluidized bed is found to be higher than that in the bed without vibration. The curve for the segregation degree exhibits a single peak value which represents the optimal segregation result.     

Particle interlocking in conical spouted beds

The pressure-velocity hysteresis phenomenon in gas-solids conical spouted beds was investigated based on pressure measurement and visual observation in a semicircular column. Experimental data in combination with a mechanistic model revealed that the hysteresis is primarily caused by different bed structures resulting from different compressed states of particles in the vicinity surrounding the internal spout or cavity, due to different interlocking behavior of particles in the upper vicinal packed-bed region in ascending and descending process. The height of the internal spout in the velocity ascending process was significantly shorter than the descending process due to the increased resistance to the gas jet penetrating through the compressed region.     

Modeling combustion of straw–bitumen pellets in a fluidized bed

Recently, straw–bitumen pellets have been proposed as an alternative fuel. In this paper, a comprehensive model for steady state combustion of straw–bitumen pellets in a bubbling fluidized bed is presented. The combustor is divided into three sectors: a dense bed zone, a splashing zone and a freeboard zone. Relevant phenomena including volatile release and segregation, char comminution and elutriation, bed particles ejection, and post-combustion above the bed have been taken into consideration. Energy equations for the splashing and freeboard zones have been established.