Cal Poly Pomona, Chemical Engineering Department.

Tito Echeverria, Jesse Guthrie, Edmond Zarookian

Fluidized Bed
 A fluidized bed is a
bed of solid particles
which are set into
motion by blowing a
gas stream upward
through the bed at a
sufficient velocity to
suspend the
particles.
History of Fluidized beds
 During the 70s and also in 80s, it appeared that
conventional pulverized coal-fired power plants had
reached a plateau in terms of thermal efficiency. The
efficiency levels achieved were of the order of 40 percent
in the US and the UK.
 An alternative technology, Fluidized Bed Combustion
(FBC), was developed to raise the efficiency levels. In this
technology, high pressure air is blown through finely
ground coal. The particles become entrained in the air
and form a floating or fluidized bed. This bed behaves like
a fluid in which the constituent particles move to and from
and collide with one another.
Oldest power station utilizing circular
fluidized bed Technology, in Lünen, Germany
Different types of Fluidized Bed
 Slugging bed –
A slugging bed is a fluid bed in which air bubbles
 , occupy entire cross sections of the vessel and divide the bed
into layers.

 Boiling bed –
A boiling bed is a fluid bed in which the air or gas
bubbles are approximately the same size as the solid particles.
 ,

 Channeling bed –
A channeling bed is a fluid bed in which the air (or
gas) forms channels in the bed through which most of the air
 . passes.

 Spouting bed –
 , A spouting bed is a fluid bed in which the air forms
a single opening through which some particles flow and fall to
the outside.
Define your problem
 Objective-
 Using the reactor in the laboratory setup, our team is in
charge with investigating the correlations between superficial
velocity, minimum fluidizing velocity, and pressure drop
across the packed bed and its respective height. All the
results are to be contrasted against theoretical results to
ensure maximum understanding of reactor behavior and
possible deviations from the idealizations in theory.

 Experimental plan-
 Obtain data in the flow regions usually associated with
fluidized beds. Being sure to record the minimum fluidizing
velocity and to compare this value to the value predicted by
theoretical correlations.
Describe your experimental
system
 Pumped air supplies with
control valves and variable
area flowmeter.
 A cylindrical column with
59mm diameter with
sintered bed plate
 The column has a
manometer for
measurement of the bed
pressure drop and also the
column is demountable in
order to remove the particle
bed.
 Two sizes of bed material
(Titanium) are supplied,
0.8mm and 1.4 mm in
diameters.
Difficulties Encountered
 Measuring the height of the bed while it
was "dancing on the fluid"

 Trying to get the flow rates to be the

same for the empty bed and the bed full
of the titanium particles

 Knowing how big of flow rate changes to

make to get a readable graph
Measurements Made
 We measured the back- pressure associated
with different flow rates with an empty canister
 We also measured the back- pressure with a
full canister at the same flow rates
 With this we got a change in pressure due to
the bed of particles
 We also measured some constant values such
as the canister diameter, zero flow rate bed
height, atmospheric pressure and temperature
 We used atmospheric pressure and
temperature to calculate the density of the air
being forced into the bed canister
Analyzed Experimental Data

 With the data collected we were able to

calculate The superficial velocity for every
flow rate

 We compared this to the to the back

pressure and flow rate

 We noticed that the point of fluidization

occurred when the back pressure leveled
out as the flow rate increased
Recommendations

 First of all read the experiment’s objective and also procedure

very carefully.
 Ask question from the instructor from any part of the lab manual
which is not clear for you before doing any action.
 Try to measure everything that is required for the experiment as
accurate as possible and record it on your lab notebook.
 To make the experiment goes fast first try to measure every
data points for empty bed and at the same time one of the
group partners goes and makes the bed particles measured
and ready for next step.
 Now you can take data for full bed with matching flow rate’s of
the empty bed.
 On the first day of the experiment try to finish collecting the data
for lab report and on following sections just try to graph your
results and if there is problem with your data you have time to
redo the experiment for that particular part.