A Study of Solids Mixing in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Using the TFM Method. Part I. Particle Travel Time Distribution

The fluidized bed has been widely applied in different industrial processes because of its inherent advantages like excellent heat and mass transfer and mixing. In the Fluid Coking TM process, wet agglomerates carry the unreacted liquid to the stripper, which causes fouling and decreases the efficiency. The cumulative distribution of the formation-to-stripper time for wet agglomerates or particles is a very vital factor in the performance of fluidized bed reactor. A novel method based on the Eulerian-Eulerian approach was applied in the bubbling fluidized bed to track the particle travel time. In addition, the effects of design parameters (gas distributors and baffles) and operating conditions (superficial gas velocity) on the particle travel time in a bubbling fluidized bed were investigated. The results show that the particle travel time can be increased by either a baffle with a fluxtube or a modified gas distributor.