Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Studies on the operation of loop-seal in circulating uidized bed boilers

Prabir Basu a,*, James Butler b,1
a
b

Mechanical Engineering Department, Dalhousie University, P.O. Box 1000, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 2X4
Greeneld Research Incorporated, P.O. Box 25018, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3M 4H4

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 31 July 2008
Received in revised form 15 November 2008
Accepted 17 November 2008
Available online 4 January 2009
Keywords:
Circulating uidized bed
Loop-seal
Standpipe
Minimum uidization velocity
Spread angle

a b s t r a c t
Loop-seal, considered heart of a circulating uidized bed (CFB), returns solids captured by cyclone to the
base of the riser while preventing direct ow of gas from high pressure riser to the low-pressure cyclone.
This non-mechanical valve is used in thousands of CFB systems yet only a limited information is available
on its working. Present research studies the ow of solids through a loop-seal and the effect of several
design and operating parameters on it. This experimental study was conducted in a loop-seal
110 mm  448 mm  400 mm high connected to a riser 152 mm diameter and 5180 mm high. Majority
of the experiments was done with 171 lm sand though several other size and type of solids were studied
for their owability. It was found that for the solids to ow through the loop-seal a minimum level of
aeration, in excess of that required for minimum uidization was required. The length of the horizontal
passage connecting the supply and recycle chambers of the loop-seal had an important effect on the solids ow. For example, the minimum aeration for the onset of solids ow increases with increase in this
length. The pressure drop per unit length across the passage also increased with the passage length. The
air fed into the supply chamber is split such that the supercial air velocity in the supply chamber (or the
standpipe) remained below the minimum uidization velocity of the particles while the remaining air
conveys solids through the horizontal passage. Present study showed that the solids owing through
the horizontal passage are neither fully uidized nor moving packed or suspended solids. It moves as a
segregated ow of solids driven by hydrostatic pressure and uid drag.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In a circulating uidized bed (CFB) boiler, solid particles are circulated around a loop by high velocity gas injected into the bottom
of the riser. The solids exit the riser top and are separated from the
gas in a separation device such as a cyclone or impact separator
(Fig. 1). Gas exits the top of the cyclone while solids fall down into
its standpipe to be recycled to the riser by means of a non-mechanical valve. Loop-seals are one of the most commonly used nonmechanical valves used in CFB boilers and reactors. Loop-seals
move solids from the low-pressure standpipe to the high pressure
riser bottom and prevent gas from moving from high pressure riser
to the low-pressure standpipe [1]. Being a non-mechanical valve it
carries no moving part and as such requires minimum maintenance. The ow of solids is maintained by proper aeration of the
valve and the presence of appropriate amounts of solids in the
standpipe.
The loop-seal is a critical component of the CFB boiler and its
failure causes the boiler or reactor to cease operation as solids

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 902 494 3227; fax: +1 902 423 6711.
E-mail address: prabir.basu@dal.ca (P. Basu).
1
Present address: Chemical Engineering Dept., University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada.
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2008.11.024

build-up in the standpipe and cyclone preventing recirculation

of the solids around the CFB loop. Although in wide use in thousands of CFB units, only a limited amount of research is published
on the operation of these devices [110]. A lack of proper understanding of the operation of the loop-seal prevents rational scale
up, design and can lead to problems with the operation of the
loop-seal. Previous works by the rst author [26] explored the
basic principle of loop-seal operation and the effect parameters
such as pressure and airow rate had on the solid ow rate. The
work of Kim and others [710] further improved our understanding of the loop-seal. Yet there are several unexplored areas of this
important component of the circulating uidized bed system. The
present work attempts to bridge one such important gap in our
knowledge.
A typical CFB with a loop-seal is shown in Fig. 1. Here, the loopseal is divided into a supply chamber (7) and a recycle chamber (9)
the two connected by a horizontal section or passage (8). The
supply chamber forms the bottom of the cyclones standpipe (6),
and the recycle chamber is connected to the lower section of the
CFB riser by means of the recycle pipe (10).
The limited research carried on loop-seal operation till date has
mostly been based on laboratory units where the thickness of the
wall separating the supply and recycle chamber is negligible.
An example of one such laboratory unit is shown in Fig. 2. The

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P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

Nomenclature
ASP
AH
C1, C2
dp
Gs
g
H
L
Ls
DPs
QH
QT
QSP
Du
U
UH

horizontal cross-section area of the standpipe, m2

vertical cross-section area of the horizontal passage, m2
empirical constants in Eq. (1)
mean diameter of bed solids, m
solids ux in the standpipe, kg/m2s
acceleration due to gravity, m/s2
height of horizontal passage length, m
length of horizontal passage, m
spread of solids in the angle of repose experiment, m
pressure drop measured across Ls in the standpipe, N/m2
gas ow through the horizontal passage, m3/s
total gas ow into bottom of supply chamber, m3/s
gas ow through standpipe, m3/s
gassolid slip velocity, m/s
supercial velocity through bed, m/s
supercial gas velocity through horizontal passage, m/s

UH,rel
Umf
UV
usg
uss
W
Ar

a
b

e
l
Us

qg
qs

velocity of gas through horizontal passage relative to

solids, m/s
minimum uidization velocity of solids, m/s
supercial gas velocity in the standpipe, m/s
absolute vertical velocity of gas, m/s
downward velocity of solids in the standpipe, m/s
height of bed surface above the overow
weir, m
q q q gd3
Archimedes number, Ar g p l2 g p
spread angle
angle made by joining the ceiling and base of horizontal
passage (Fig. 7)
voidage
kinematic viscosity of gas, kg m/s
sphericity of particle
density of uidizing gas, kg/m3
density of solids, kg/m3

Fig. 2. Laboratory models of loop-seal with a negligible passage length used for
research in typical bench scale units.

Fig. 1. Experimental CFB setup used for studies on loop-seal.

loop-seals in commercial CFB boilers are much different from this

as it can be seen in Fig. 3. The loop-seal in a CFB boiler would have
to have a nite length of this passage owing to the nite thickness

of the wall separating the two chambers (Fig. 3). The refractory
walls and insulation around the standpipe and loop-seal recycle
chamber would typically require a thickness well exceeding 250
500 mm unless they are specically designed to have no external
wall between these two chambers. Thus a denite horizontal passage exists in all CFB boiler that has been overlooked in all studies
till date.
It was not known previous to this study whether the length of
this passage has any inuence on the solid ow rate between the
two chambers making it difcult to assess how well the data produced on loop-seals with negligible thickness (Fig. 2) can be applied to commercial loop-seals with nite thickness of the
passage. The present research attempts to investigate this unexplored area of loop-seal operations and provide a quantitative
assessment of the effect if any.

P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

1725

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of a twin-exit loop-seal of a large commercial CFB boiler.

1.1. Working of a loop-seal

The ow of solids through the standpipe is considered to be a
moving packed bed ow [2]. The base of the standpipe usually
forms the supply chamber of a loop-seal (Fig. 2). At least one side
of the standpipe is open and connected to the recycle chamber
through the horizontal passage (Figs. 2 and 3). One side of the recycle chamber is lowered forming a weir, which is connected to the
recycle pipe leading to the rise base (Figs. 1 and 2). Solids from the
standpipe (or the supply chamber) ow into the passage through
this opening.
The solids in the recycle chamber are kept in a bubbling uidized state causing the bed to expand. Thus the solids ow over
the side weir into the recycle pipe and back into the riser. As the
aeration through the recycle chamber increases bubbles cause
the bed to expand further over the top of the weir (higher W,
Fig. 2). As a result more solids overow into the recycle pipe resulting in a higher solid recycle rate. This part of the loop-seal operation has been discussed in details earlier [2,3].
The ow of solids from the standpipe to the horizontal passage
and its hydrodynamics through it, have not been investigated earlier. So, the mode of solids ow through this passage is the subject
of present investigation. This work attempts to explore how this
solids ow and how its ow is affected by operating and design
parameters.
To explain the working of the loop-seal let us imagine a column
lled with solids resting on a horizontal platform. If one makes an
opening on the side of a column some solids will ow away of it
forming a slope. How far the solids will move depends on the angle
of this slope, which in turn depends on the properties of the solids.
For example, a spherical smooth particle will move much further
than a rough non-spherical particle. Addition of air into the column or at the bottom of the plate where solids spread would reduce the inter-particle friction and would, therefore help solids
ow further.
For this reason air is added through the base of a supply chamber. The aeration in the supply chamber, however, should not exceed that required for minimum uidization of the solids in the
standpipe, because at velocities above Umf the standpipe will be
uidized and any further increase in airow will not increase the
pressure drop across the standpipe. In a CFB loop the pressure
around it always balances under steady state. Air, fed through
the bottom of the supply chamber (Fig. 4) or into a vertical aeration
section above the supply chamber, does not ow entirely into the
standpipe [10]. A part of it ows downstream into the recycle
chamber through the horizontal section while the rest may ow

into the standpipe. This splitting of aeration occurs such that the
pressure drop across the packed bed in the standpipe balances
the pressure around rest of the CFB loop. Thus, standpipe automatically adjusts the pressure drop across it by using the packed bed
pressure drop characteristics. Fluidization of the standpipe robs
the loop-seal of this important feature of loop-seal, and thus its
pressure seal offered by the loop-seal is lost. This will cause the
solids and gases to ow back from the riser up through the
standpipe.
1.2. Angle of repose
The angle of repose of a particle is a measure of the inter-particle frictional force. It has a major inuence on the ow of solids
through the horizontal passage b. For this reason, this property of
the solids was measured here in the context of the present
research.
Bulk solids of uniform grain size, free from surface moisture are
rated free-owing [12]. If free-owing bulk solids are discharged
through a vertical or horizontal opening in absence of aeration,
the angle formed by the free surface of the particles to the horizontal plane is called the angle of repose, b. If aeration is added to the
solids the inter-particle friction decreases, and the solids, therefore,
spread out further (Fig. 4). In the present work we call this angle
the spread angle (a), and dene it as the angle a pile of particles
make with the horizontal when subjected to a given airow, as
shown in Fig. 4. The spread angle at zero aeration is equal to the
angle of repose. If the velocity exceeds Umf of the particles then a
becomes zero and the solids behave like a liquid.
Both spread angle and the angle of repose vary depending on
the particle size and shape of particles. The spread angle depends
additionally on the airow through the bed of particles. As the angle of repose decreases the horizontal length (L) of the spread of
sands increases (Fig. 4). If it exceeds the length of the passage L,
(Fig. 4) the solids starts owing into the recycle chamber without
any aeration. For particles where this is not the case aeration is
added to decrease the spread angle such that the particles spread
beyond the length of the horizontal passage. Thus, if the length
of the horizontal passage is long then the solids must be aerated
to reduce the inter-particle friction to the extent that the resulting
spread angle a is below that created by joining the top edge of the
supply chamber to the bottom edge of the horizontal section (b in
Fig. 4). As the horizontal passage length increases, the angle b decreases and the resulting spread angle a needs to drop further below this value requiring even higher aeration rates for solids to
ow.

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P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

Fig. 4. Loop-seal setup with nite passage length as used in current work. It also shows the spread angle (a) and the angle of repose (b).

2. Experimentation
Experiments were conducted in a circulating uidized bed (CFB)
test rig consisting of a riser, two gas/solid separators (a cyclone and
a U-beam separator), a standpipe connected to a buttery valve
and a loop-seal operated at room temperature (Fig. 1). A bag lter
is also installed to capture solid particles that escape the cyclone.
The riser is made of Plexiglas for clear visibility, and has an internal
diameter of 0.152 m and height of 5.181 m. More details of the
experimental setup are given by Butler [3].
2.1. Solids recirculation
The recycle system includes a standpipe (71 mm  80 mm
cross-section and 3355 mm high) connected to a loop-seal as
shown in Fig. 1. The supply (101 mm  101 mm) and recycle
chambers (101 mm  101 mm) are connected by a horizontal section of variable length, L (Fig. 4). The height of the passage, H is
82 mm, and its width passage 101 mm. It was made up of multiple
vertical slices of the passage cross-section for easy adjustment of
its length, L. Thus the length of the horizontal section, L could be
varied easily within 176246 mm by adjusting the number of vertical slices. The recycle chamber is 400 mm high, but one of its
walls is only 200 mm high to serve as the overow weir. Solids
ow over this weir to drop into the recycle pipe connecting to
the riser.
Equal amounts of air were fed under the supply and recycle
chambers of the loop-seal, with no aeration below the horizontal
passage. The uidizing velocity in the riser was kept constant at
5.86 m/s as the bottom aeration of the loop-seal was varied between 0 and 0.0063 m3/s. Airow rate in the riser was measured
using a duct-type ow meter. For the loop-seal aeration, three
rotameters were used, one measuring and controlling the total
ow rate feeding the two. Two other rotameters measured the ow
through individual chambers. Aeration in the horizontal passage is
expressed as UH that is the supercial horizontal air velocity
through the passage. It is calculated by dividing the airow rate,

QH by the vertical cross-section area of the passage, AH. The solid

velocity through the passage is computed from the solid volume
ux and the voidage at minimum uidization. Fluid drag, which
is proportional to the gassolid slip velocity, is an important contributor to the motion of solids through the horizontal passage.
The gassolid relative velocity, U H;rel in the horizontal passage
was computed by subtracting this solid velocity from the supercial air velocity, through it.
The solid inventory in the CFB was held constant in each set of
experiments. The solid ow rate was measured by closing a buttery valve at the top of the standpipe and measuring the time it took
for the solids to ll a known volume. Mass ux was calculated by
dividing the measured ow rate of the solids by the cross-sectional
area of the horizontal passage.
2.2. Measurement of minimum uidization velocity
Minimum uidization velocity is an important property of granular solids. It affects how the solids ow through a loop-seal. So,
this property of the solids was also studied in the present research.
Several correlations are available in published literature including
one for spherical and non-spherical particles given by Grace [11]
given below.

U mf

i
l h 2
C 1 C 2 Ar0:5  C 1
dp qg

1
q q q gd3

where C1 = 27.2; C2 = 0.0408, and Ar g p l2 g p .

These correlations are based on the Ergun equation of pressure
drop across granular solids, which is an empirical relation with
large error band. The Ergun equation, given below is for a nonspherical particle.
2
DP
1  e2 lU
1  e qg U
150
1:75
2
3
3
Ls
e
e Us dp
Us dp

where us is the sphericity of the particle, and e the voidage within

the particle packing.

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P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

A broader range of particles was used in the experiment for

minimum uidization as they would be subsequently used in the
angle of spread experiments described next. The above experiment
was repeated for two types of sand and two types of glass beads.
Eqs. (2) and (3) can be combined at U = Umf to relate the minimum uidization velocity with particle size, voidage and sphericity. It is very difcult to measure the sphericity for non-uniform
sized particles like used here, but the average voidage can be measured relatively easily. The measured value of minimum uidization velocity was used in the to back calculate the average
sphericity, us of the particles from Eq. (2). This calculation is however subject to the (25%) error band of Eq. (2). For this reason the
sphericity values slightly exceeding 1.0 were found for the smaller
particles, exceeding the theoretical maximum of 1.0.
Sphericity measured in this way is used as a correction factor
of the Ergun Equation rather than an absolute particle property.
Table 1 shows that the sand has a lower sphericity than glass beads
when particles from similar mean diameters are compared.
2.3. Measurement of spread angle

Fig. 5. Typical pressure drop measured across the bed of particles against
supercial gas velocity passing through it.

As the empirical Equation (1) is based on another empirical

Equation (2) experimental values are most reliable for minimum
uidization velocity. For this reason a separate test rig was designed and used to measure the minimum uidization velocity as
well as the product (Udp) for the particles used in the angle of repose study. The pressure drop across a height, L of packed bed of
solids resting on a distributor, was measured while slowly increasing the supercial velocity through the packed bed. The pressure
drop increased nearly linearly while the velocity was increased
as shown in Fig. 5.
The near linear variation of pressure drop with the velocity
(Fig. 5) suggests the predominance of the rst term of Eq. (2) over
the second term. The pressure drop stops increasing further once
the supercial velocity reaches the minimum uidization velocity,
Umf and remains fairly constant at higher velocities because above
Umf the weight of the particles is now fully supported by the uid
drag on the particles [1].


DP
1  emf qs  qg g
L UUmf

The intersection between the rising and the stabilized part of

the pressure drop characteristic graph (Fig. 5) gives the minimum
uidization velocity. Fig. 5 shows some of these characteristic
graphs.
Silica sand of mean particle diameter of 171 lm and particle
density of 2856 kg/m3 was used in all the experiments on loop-seal
operation. The minimum uidization velocity, Umf for this bed solid
was 0.029 m/s.

A separate experiment was conducted to measure the spread

angle. Although experiments on the loop-seal were conducted with
171 lm silica sand, the experiments on spread angle measurements and minimum uidization were carried out for a wider
range of sand and glass particles in order to get a good sense of
the this important property of solids. In this experiment, measured
amount of air was supplied to a heap of particles resting on a porous synthetic plate. A digital camera measured the angle of the
heap while the velocity of air through the plate was varied. The
spread angle at different airow was computed from the angle of
the particle heap. Photographs were taken at different air velocities
to calculate the spread angle for the particle heap. Further details
of these experiments are given in Ref. [3].
2.4. Gas velocity through the standpipe
When gas is passed through the supply chamber, a part of the
gas ows into the standpipe to develop the necessary pressure seal.
To measure this pressure taps were located in the standpipe at a
height of 215.9 mm, in the supply and recycle chambers (at a
height of 25.4 mm) and on two ends of the horizontal passage at
a height of 25.4 mm (Fig. 4). The taps were connected to pressure
transducers and the signals were processed and recorded using a
data acquisition system.
The relative velocity of the gas, with respect to the solids,
through the supply chamber and the standpipe was found using
the pressure drop across a section of the standpipe. For gas ow
through the standpipe the Ergun equation [11], can be written in
terms of the gassolid slip velocity Du as

DP S
1  e2 lDu
1  e qg Du2
150
1:75
2
3
LS
e
e3 Us dp
Us dp

Table 1
Properties of particles used in angle of repose experiment.
Silica sand
Particle type
Mean diameter (lm)
Initial angle of repose (deg)
Umf (m/s, measured)
Umf (m/s, calculated from Eq. (1))
Sphericity
a

Fine
92
33.9
0.0155
0.0087
1.0a

Glass beads
Medium coarse
184
33.3
0.0340
0.0343
0.7804

These two values are probably a result of approximation used in the indirect method used for measurement of sphericity.

Fine
124
24.0
0.0170
0.0157
1.0a

Coarse
645
26.0
0.295
0.3354
0.8446

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P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

From the pressure drop DPs measured across a height, Ls of the

standpipe one can compute the gassolid slip velocity, Du, which
is the sum of upward gas velocity usg and downward solid velocity
uss.

Du usg uss

UV

Gs

qs 1  e

The supercial gas velocity in the standpipe (UV) is determined

from the above equation from measured solid ux, Gs in the standpipe and known voidage. It gives a positive value for the upward
owing gas or a negative value for the downward ow of gas.
The gas ow rate though the horizontal passage is found by subtracting the gas ow into the standpipe, QSP from the total gas ow
rate entering the bottom of the supply chamber. The gas velocity
through the horizontal passage (UH) is then found using its crosssectional area.

Q H Q T  Q SP

where QSP = UV  ASP; and QH = UH  AH ASP is the horizontal cross-section area of the standpipe AH is the vertical cross-section area of the
horizontal passage.
In instances where the velocity in the standpipe is negative QSP
is added to the total ow rate to get the ow through the horizontal passage.
3. Results and discussion
Solids collected in gassolid separator drops into its standpipe.
It then ows downward under gravity. Non-mechanical valves like
loop-seal help solids, collected in the standpipe, move horizontally
unaided but only to a certain distance because of the gravitational
force of solids acting on them and the opposition of the inter-particle friction to this motion. Airow into the solids help reduce the
inter-particle friction. So, to understand how solids ow from the
standpipe to the horizontal passage and then to the recycle chamber it is necessary to understand the effect of airow on the free
movement of solids from a xed pile.
3.1. Effect of velocity on spread angle
The spread angle at zero velocity that is equal to the angle of repose is a function of particle shape and size. Table 1 shows that for
silica sand the angle of repose is generally in the range of 33.334.
For glass beads the angle of repose is much lower in the range of
2427. Manufactured glass spheres are generally more spherical
and regular in shape than natural sand. For this reasons the inter-particle friction amongst glass particles is lower and hence
the lower angle of repose compared to that for sand particles. Thus,
glass particles will move out further into the horizontal passage. It
is interesting to note that within the present range of particle size
(92184 lm) for sand (124644 lm) for glass no clear effect of
particle size on the angle of repose is observed.
Fig. 6 shows that the spread angle reduced steadily with an increase in the aeration rate through the solids. Beyond a critical
velocity the spread angle dropped to zero. This critical velocity
marks the onset of free solids ow and is interestingly very close
to the Umf of the mean size of the particle. To verify this observation for all particles the spread angle is plotted against uidization
number, which is a ratio of the supercial velocity and minimum
uidization velocity measured for the particle (Fig. 6). It is interesting to note that the spread angle dropped to zero at a uidization
number of around 1.0 for nearly all sizes of both types of particles.
Thus, coarser particles, having higher Umf will need higher aeration
rate in the supply chamber than a ner particle for solids to ow
freely into the recycle chamber.

Fig. 6. Variation in spread angle a against non-dimensional aeration velocity for

glass and sand particles of different sizes.

If there is no aeration directly underneath the horizontal passage, as is the case with the rest of this research, the solids in the
horizontal passage will be moved by both the hydrostatic pressure
from the solids in the supply chamber (and or standpipe) as well as
the drag force of the gas from the supply chamber to the recycle
chamber.
3.2. Effect of aeration and horizontal passage length on solid ow
The solids ow rate was measured for a number of different
loop-seal aeration rates (expressed as a ratio of supercial velocity
through the horizontal passage and the minimum uidization
velocity, UH/Umf). Fig. 7 shows that the solids ow started only
above a certain value of the aeration rate and the solids ow rate
increased with increasing aeration rate nearly linearly until it
reached a maximum value. No further increase in solids ow rate
was possible in spite of continued increase in the value of UH/Umf.
Fig. 7 shows a nite value for the intercept of the solid circulation vs. (UH/Umf) graph because the horizontal section offers a resistance to the solid ow, and the airow through the horizontal
passage must exceed this resistance before any solid ow is initiated. Other workers also observed such a presence of minimum
aeration for the initiation of solids ow [2,9].

Fig. 7. Changes in solids circulation ux with supply chamber aeration (UH/Umf) and
horizontal passage length (L/H).

P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

Results of three different passage lengths, L are shown in Fig. 7.

This further shows that the rate of change of solid ow with aeration is nearly constant for a given passage length, but this rate decreases as the horizontal passage length increases. This further
conrms the hypothesis that a longer passage length offers greater
resistance and hence needs a higher aeration rate (Fig. 7).
Although data for very low solid ow rates are not available,
one can easily infer from the plot that solid ow occurred only
when the horizontal supercial velocity (UH) through the passage
was well in excess of Umf. Minimum uidization velocity may not
have much relevance to a ow of air in the horizontal direction,
but Umf is related to a uid drag equivalent to the weight of the solids. For this reason Umf used for non-dimensionalization of the air
velocity through the horizontal passage. In the present case of a
horizontal ow, Fig. 7 shows that a supercial horizontal air velocity higher than Umf is required to convey the solids through the
passage.
A sample pressure prole around the entire CFB loop is shown
in Fig. 8. It shows that pressure at the bottom of the supply chamber is highest at 13,300 Pa. This pressure drops to about 12,600 as
solids move to the bottom of the recycle chamber. Then the static
pressure drops to 10,800 Pa due to the pressured drop across the
200 mm deep uidized bed in the recycle chamber. This pressure
is nearly the same as that at the base of riser as the pressure drop
in the recycle pipe is small. From here the solid travels upwards to
the riser top, where the pressure decreases to about 10,000 Pa.
There is about 100 Pa drop across the impact separator and a similar drop across the cyclone. Pressure drop through the dilute section of the standpipe is negligible, but about a 500 Pa pressure drop
occurred across the dense section the standpipe. Largest pressure
drop occurs across the standpipe and this pressure drives the solids
through the system.

1729

Fig. 9. Velocity for the onset of solids circulation against the horizontal passage
length.

ation below the horizontal passage, the solids may not become
uidized. Its lateral ow is dominated by the drag from the horizontal gas ow rather than free ow of solids under gravity from
the supply to the recycle chamber as would be expected of uidized solids. For this reason a (UH/Umf) higher than 1.0 was necessary
for the initiation of solids ow. And this value was higher for longer
passage lengths. In case of pneumatic transport also the minimum
airow required for transportation of solids is higher in a horizontal pipe than that required for a vertical column.
3.4. Effect of passage length on the maximum solid ow rate

As the length of the horizontal passage increases the airow required for the initiation of solids ow, increases as well. Fig. 9 plots
the airow ratio (UH/Umf) at the onset of solid ow against the total
length of the horizontal passage showing this effect. As this length
increases, the total friction in the horizontal passage increases. So,
the airow required to initiate the ow of solids through the passage increases with increasing length.
It may be noted that an airow exceeding (AH  Umf) through the
horizontal passage do not necessarily render the particles fully mobile as one would expect in a vertical column. Since there is no aer-

Fig. 7 also shows that the solid ow rate increases with aeration
rate, but it levels off beyond a certain value, also shown by Basu
et al. [2] and Kim and Kim [7]. This suggests that airow through
the loop-seal reduces the resistance through the loop-seal only
up to a maximum when the particles are rendered fully mobile. Beyond this any additional air just ows through the horizontal passage without affecting the solid ow like it happens in the case of
vertical airow through a bed of solids. The overall pressure balance ultimately drives the solid ow across the CFB loop.
Fig. 7 shows that as the length of the horizontal passage increases, the maximum solid ow rate obtained in each case decreases. This is a result of the increasing frictional resistance
with the length of the horizontal passage. Fig. 10 presents the variation in the maximum solids ow rate against the passage length
obtained by four different aeration rates (UH/Umf ratio). It is interesting to note that the aeration rate did not have any direct inuence on the maximum ow rate. Also, the maximum obtainable
solid ow rate did not reduce to the same extent as the horizontal

Fig. 8. Typical pressure balance around CFB loop (H/L = 2.23, UH/Umf = 4.22).

Fig. 10. Maximum obtainable solid ux against horizontal passage length.

3.3. Effect of passage length on initiation of solid ow

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P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

length increased. The total resistance in the recycle circuit, wherein

friction in the horizontal passage is just one component, governs
the maximum solid ow rate. Thus an increase in the horizontal
length would not necessarily decrease the ow rate by the same
amount.
3.5. Effect of passage length and solid ux on the pressure drop across
the passage
When the length of the horizontal passage is increased the pressure drop through the section increases due to the higher gassolid
frictional resistance in it as one would expect in case of pneumatic
transport of solids through a horizontal pipe. If the pressure drop
was due to gassolid and wallgas resistance alone the pressure
drop per unit length will be independent of the length of the passage. Fig. 11 on the contrary shows that the pressure drop per unit
length of the passage increases with total length. Thus the ow
could not be a simple homogeneous two phase ow.
Even after the supercial horizontal gas velocity exceeded Umf,
the bulk of solids in the passage were not uidized leaving an area
of stationary solids near the end of the horizontal passage as
shown in Fig. 12. It was further visually observed that more solids
were owing in the upper section of the passage than in the lower
section. As the length of the passage is increased, the volume of the
stationery solids increased, increasing the pressure drop and
restricting the ow of solids. Thus, the pressure drop per unit passage length increased with the total passage length. It was previously noted that a longer passage length reduced the maximum
solid ux. For a given UH/Umf ratio this decrease in solid ow rate
would increase the slip velocity between the solids and gases,
increasing the pressure drop across the passage.

Fig. 12. A stagnant area of solids is developed at the base of the passage restricting
solids ow through it.

3.6. The division of ow through the loop-seal

As indicated in Section 2.3 the airow rate into the supply
chamber is split between the passage and the standpipe. This split
of was computed using Eqs. (5) and (6). The supercial velocity
through the passage and that through the standpipe are plotted
on Fig. 13 against the total aeration rate. The supercial airow
velocity in both cases is made non-dimensional by dividing it by
Umf.
For low solid ow rates a small amount of airows up the standpipe helping to lubricate the solids in the standpipe (Fig. 13). The
remaining air ows through the horizontal passage at a horizontal
velocity (UH). Here, we see a positive value of the UV.
As the loop-seal aeration is increased, the circulation of solids
around the CFB loop increases (Fig. 9) resulting in a larger down
ow of solids through the standpipe. As discussed in Section 2.4

Fig. 11. Pressure drop across horizontal passage increases with increasing passage
length.

Fig. 13. Split of aeration velocity (U/Umf) between supply chamber and horizontal
passage. Here UV is the supercial velocity of gas owing up through the standpipe
and UH is the supercial velocity of gas passing through the horizontal passage. The
relative (U H;rel ) is also plotted on the same graph.

particles descending through the standpipe drag air with them,

causing a large amount of air in the standpipe to be entrained into
the supply chamber. This causes a decreasing and eventual reversal
of the airow through the supply chamber (negative UV). This is
visible in Fig. 13 at aeration exceeding 0.0035 m3/s. When the ow
reversal occurs in the standpipe, the standpipe air combines with
the supply chamber aeration and ows through the horizontal passage where airow increases nearly linearly with the total loopseal aeration rate. For this reason one notices that the air velocity
through the passage increases more rapidly when a ow reversal
takes place in the standpipe.
Airow through the horizontal passage exerts a drag on solids
owing through the passage [10]. This drag is proportional to the
slip velocity between the gas and solids. An increased aeration rate
causes an increased slip velocity between the gas and solids,

P. Basu, J. Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 17231731

increasing the drag on the solids and increasing the solid ow

through the loop-seal.
After the ow reversal has taken place the velocity of air owing
through the standpipe becomes downward. For the shorter passage
length (L/H = 2.15) this downward airow reaches a nearly constant value at just below the minimum uidizing velocity, whereas
for the longest passage length (L/H = 3.00) this downward airow
does not reach as large a value and remains constant at around
0.75Umf (Fig. 13). The longer horizontal passage length (larger L/
H) offers a larger resistance to gas ow. So, less air is entrained
from the standpipe and a larger pressure drop is seen in the
standpipe.

3.7. Gassolid relative velocity in the loop-seal

Fig. 13 also plots the gassolid relative velocity in the passage to
show how the gassolid slip velocity changes with the total supply
chamber aeration. Here we note that while the non-dimensional
value (UH/Umf) of the supercial air velocity in this section increased from 2.0 to 5.0, the gassolid relative (slip) velocity
(U H;rel =U mf ), increased from 1 to 2.5 in that proportion, but the corresponding increase in the solids ow (Fig. 7) is much higher than
this rise in gassolid slip velocity. It is further interesting to note
that the solids ow rate levelled off beyond a non-dimensional
supercial velocity of 3.5, though the slip velocity, (U H;rel =U mf ) continued to increase (Fig. 13). If the solid ow is caused by the gas
solid uid drag alone the ow rate will not taper off. This suggests
that other factors like overall pressure balance around the loopseal must be another force driving the solids in the loop-seal.

4. Conclusions
1. Solid ow through the horizontal passage is neither a ow of
uidized solids nor a ow of packed or suspended solids. It is
a segregated ow of solids driven by hydrostatic pressure and
uid drag.
2. A longer horizontal passage length offers greater resistance to
solid ow and therefore conveys a smaller amount of solids at
a given gas ow through the passage.
3. The pressure drop per unit length of the horizontal passage
increases with its total length. This suggests that additional
resistance is offered by the constriction of the passage by a zone
of stationary solids, whose size increased with total length of
the horizontal passage.

1731

4. The solid ow starts only after the airow through the supply
chamber exceeds a threshold limit that increases with the horizontal passage length. The threshold is a result of the effect of
aeration rate on the inter-particle friction forces. This amount is
higher than that required for minimum uidization.
5. As the passage length is increased the maximum obtainable
solid circulation rate decreases due to the increased resistance
in the horizontal passage.
6. Aeration into the supply chamber is split such that the supercial velocity of air in the supply chamber or the standpipe
remains below that required for minimum uidization. The
remaining airow conveys solids through the horizontal
passage.
7. At high solid ow rates the entire supply chamber aeration
ows into the horizontal passage along with air entrained by
the solids in the standpipe.

Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the supports received from Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Greeneld Research Incorporated. Dr. Augustus Leon helped prepare
the nal manuscript.
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