HYDRODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A TAPERED FLUIDIZED-BED REACTOR

Tapered fluidised bed reactors are increasingly adopted for a variety of applications because of their well-publicised stability and ease of operation under a wide range of operating conditions. In the present study, the bed expansion characteristics of a variety of solid materia ls (glass beads, sand and gravel) and pressure drop across the fluidis ed bed were studied at different solids loading. The fluid phase used was tap water. The experiments were carried out in a tapered column ha ving an apex angle of 30 degrees. Pressure drop-flow rate and bed heig ht-flow rate diagrams are presented for the range of the data generate d. It is observed that the pressure drop behaviour conforms to that re ported in the literature i.e., there is a sharp peak in the pressure d rop around the condition of incipient fluidisation. The bed height-flo w rate graphs are classical enabling the determination of the minimum fluidising velocity for the range of solid materials covered. The maxi mum pressure drop (Delta P-max), critical velocity (u(c)) and the mini mum fluidising velocity (u(mf)) are neatly tabulated.