High-G Intensified Mass, Heat and Momentum Transfer in Vortex Chamber Generated Rotating Fluidized Beds
Juray DE WILDE, Université catholique de Louvain, Materials & Process Engineering Division (IMAP), Place Sainte Barbe 2, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; tel.: +32 10 47 8193; fax: +32 10 47 4028;
Long Abstract
Outline
Rotating fluidized beds can be generated in a vortex chamber [1]. The latter consists of a number of tangential gas inlets slots and a central chimney for evacuation of the gas. The high-G operation allows intensifying interfacial transfer of mass, heat and momentum [2]. The latter allows dense and more uniform beds at high gas-solid slip velocities and the fluidization of particles that cannot be fluidized conventionally. The presentation will first give a short overview of the fluid dynamics and design aspects of vortex chambers for the generation of rotating fluidized beds. Next the applications that have been studied so far will be discussed.
Experimental and numerical studies have been combined to gain insight in the complex fluid dynamics and scale-up of vortex chambers for the generation of rotating fluidized beds. The experimental studies were carried out in both cold and hot flow units, the latter to focus on mass and heat transfer related applications, such as particle drying [3] and coating [4].
Figure 1. Vortex chamber generated rotating fluidized bed.
The numerical studies include ideal flow pattern type- and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and aim at getting improved insight in details of the design and evaluating the performance of vortex chamber based devices for given applications. This will be illustrated for a number of applications of industrial interest.
References
[1] J. De Wilde, A. de Broqueville, Rotating fluidized beds in a static geometry: experimental proof of concept, AIChE J., 53 (4): 793–810, 2007.
[2] J. De Wilde. Gas-solid fluidized beds in vortex chambers. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 85:256–290, 2014.
[3] P. Eliaers, J. De Wilde, Drying of biomass particles: experimental study and comparison of the performance of a conventional fluidized bed and a rotating fluidized bed in a static geometry, Drying Technol., 31 (2): 236–245, 2013.
[4] P. Eliaers, A. de Broqueville, A. Poortinga, T. van Hengstum, J. De Wilde, High-G, low-temperature coating of cohesive particles in a vortex chamber, Powder Technol., 258: 242–251, 2014.