Comparison between the new mechanistic and the chaos scale-up methods for gas-solid fluidized beds

The chaotic scale-up approach by matching the Kolmogorov entropy(E_K) proposed by Schouten et al.(1996) was assessed in two geometrically similar gas–solid fluidized bed columns of 0.14 and 0.44 m diameter.We used four conditions of our validated new mechanistic scale-up method based on matching the radial profiles of gas holdup where the local dimensionless hydrodynamic parameters were similar as measured by advanced measurement techniques.These experimental conditions were used to evaluate the validity of the chaotic scale-up method,which were selected based on our new mechanistic scale-up methodology.Pressure gauge transducer measurements at the wall and inside the bed at various local radial locations and at three axial heights were used to estimate KE.It was found that the experimental conditions with similar or close radial profiles of the Kolmogorov entropy and with similar or close radial profiles of the gas holdup achieve the similarity in local dimensionless hydrodynamic parameters,and vice versa.     

Life cycle assessment and environmental profile evaluation of lead-free piezoelectrics in comparison with lead zirconate titanate

The prohibition of lead in many electronic components and devices due to its toxicity has reinvigorated the race to develop substitutes for lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based mainly on the potassium sodium niobate (KNN) and sodium bismuth titanate (NBT). However, before successful transition from laboratory to market, critical environmental assessment of all aspects of their fabrication and development must be carried out in comparison with PZT. Given the recent findings that KNN is not intrinsically ‘greener’ than PZT, there is a tendency to see NBT as the solution to achieving environmentally lead-free piezoelectrics competitive with PZT. The lower energy consumed by NBT during synthesis results in a lower overall environmental profile compared to both PZT and KNN. However, bismuth and its oxide are mainly the by-product of lead smelting and comparison between NBT and PZT indicates that the environmental profile of bismuth oxide surpasses that of lead oxide across several key indicators, especially climate change, due to additional processing and refining steps which pose extra challenges in metallurgical recovery. Furthermore, bismuth compares unfavourably with lead due to its higher energy cost of recycling. The fact that roughly 90–95% of bismuth is derived as a by-product of lead smelting also constitutes a major concern for future upscaling. As such, NBT and KNN do not offer absolute competitive edge from an environmental perspective in comparison to PZT. The findings in this work have global practical implications for future Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation for piezoelectric materials and demonstrate the need for a holistic approach to the development of sustainable functional materials.     

Effect of elevated temperature and silica sand particle size on minimum fluidization velocity in an atmospheric bubbling fluidized bed

The impact of temperature and particle size on minimum fluidizing velocity was studied and analyzed in a small pilot scale of bubbling fluidized bed reactor. This study was devoted to providing some data about fluidization to the literature under high temperature conditions. The experiments were carried out to evaluate the minimum fluidizing velocity over a vast range of temperature levels from 20 °C to 850 °C using silica sand with a particle size of 300–425 μm, 425–500 μm, 500–600 μm, and 600–710 μm. Furthermore, the variation in the minimum fluidized voidage was determined experimentally at the same conditions. The experimental data revealed that the U_mf directly varied with particle size and inversely with temperature, while ε_mf increases slightly with temperature based on the measurements of height at incipient fluidization. However, for all particle sizes used in this test, temperatures above 700 °C has a marginal effect on U_mf. The results were compared with many empirical equations, and it was found that the experimental result is still in an acceptable range of empirical equations used. In which, our findings are not well predicted by the widely accepted correlations reported in the literature. Therefore, a new predicted equation has been developed that also accounts for the affecting of mean particle size in addition to other parameters. A good mean relative deviation of 5.473% between the experimental data and the predicted values was estimated from the correlation of the effective dimensionless group. Furthermore, the experimental work revealed that the minimum fluidizing velocity was not affected by the height of the bed even at high temperature.     

Effect of elevated temperature and silica sand particle size on minimum fluidization velocity in an atmospheric bubbling fluidized bed

The impact of temperature and particle size on minimum fluidizing velocity was studied and analyzed in a small pilot scale of bubbling fluidized bed reactor. This study was devoted to providing some data about fluidization to the literature under high temperature conditions. The experiments were carried out to evaluate the minimum fluidizing velocity over a vast range of temperature levels from 20℃ to 850℃ using silica sand with a particle size of 300-425 μm, 425-500 μm, 500-600 μm, and 600-710 μm. Furthermore, the variation in the minimum fluidized voidage was determined experimentally at the same conditions. The experimental data revealed that the U_mf directly varied with particle size and inversely with temperature, while ε_mf increases slightly with temperature based on the measurements of height at incipient fluidization. However, for all particle sizes used in this test, temperatures above 700℃ has a marginal effect on U_mf. The results were compared with many empirical equations, and it was found that the experimental result is still in an acceptable range of empirical equations used. In which, our findings are not well predicted by the widely accepted correlations reported in the literature. Therefore, a new predicted equation has been developed that also accounts for the affecting of mean particle size in addition to other parameters. A good mean relative deviation of 5.473% between the experimental data and the predicted values was estimated from the correlation of the effective dimensionless group. Furthermore, the experimental work revealed that the minimum fluidizing velocity was not affected by the height of the bed even at high temperature.     

Life cycle assessment of functional materials and devices: Opportunities,challenges, and current and future trends

Functional ceramics such as piezoelectrics, thermoelectrics, magnetic materials, ionic conductors, and semiconductors are opening new frontiers that underpin numerous aspects of modern life. This widespread usage comes with a responsibility to understand what impact their mass production has on the environment. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool employed for the identification of sustainable materials pathways through the consideration of environmental burdens of materials both during fabrication and as a final product. Although the LCA technique has been widely used for the evaluation of environmental impacts in numerous product supply chains, its application for environmental profiling of functional ceramics is now gaining attention. This paper presents a review of current developments in LCA, including existing and emerging applications with emphasis on the development and fabrication of functional materials and devices (FM&D). Selected published works on LCA of functional ceramics are discussed, highlighting the importance of adopting LCA at the design stage and/or at laboratory stage before expensive investments and resources are committed. Drawing from the extant literature, we show that the integration of environmental and sustainability principles into the overall process of FM&D manufacturing, in a way that anticipates foreseeable harmful consequences while identifying opportunities for improvement, can aid the timely communications of key findings to functional materials developers. This guides the orientation of research, development and deployment, and provides insights toward the prioritization of research activities while potentially averting unintended consequences. It is intended that the review presented will encourage the materials science community to engage with LCA to address important materials design, substitution, and optimization needs.     

The impact of vertical internals array on the key hydrodynamic parameters in a gas-solid fluidized bed using an advance optical fiber probe

The effect of a circular configuration of intense vertical immersed tubes on the hydrodynamic parameters has been investigated in a gas-solid fluidized bed of 0.14?m inside diameter. The experiments were performed using glass beads solid particles of 365?μm average particle size, with a solid density of 2500?kg/m³ (Geldart B). An advanced optical fiber probe technique was used to study the behavior of six essential local hydrodynamic parameters (i.e., local solids holdup, particles velocity, bubble rise velocity, bubble frequency, and bubble mean chord length) in the presence of vertical immersed tubes. The experimental measurements were carried out at six radial positions and three axial heights, which represent the three key zones of the bed: near the distributor plate, the middle of the fluidizing bed, and near the freeboard of the column. Furthermore, four superficial gas velocities (u/u_mf?=?1.6, 1.76, 1.96, and 2.14) were employed to study the effect of operating conditions. The experimental results demonstrated that the vertical internals had a significant effect on all the studied local hydrodynamic characteristics such that when using internals, both the solids holdup and bubble mean chord length decreased, while the particles velocity, bubble rise velocity, and bubble frequency increased. The measured values of averaged bubble rise velocities and averaged bubble chord lengths at different axial heights and superficial gas velocities have been compared with most used correlations available in the literature. It was found that the measured values are in good agreement with values calculated using predicted correlation for the case without vertical internals. While, the absolute percentage relative error between the measured and calculated values of these two hydrodynamic parameters indicate large differences for the case of vertical internals.