An Experimental Study of Liquid-Solid Flow in a Circulating Fluidized Bed of Varying Liquid Viscosity

Hydrodynamics plays a major role in the design of an industrial liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed (LSCFB) system. Till date, research investigations have been carried out with tap water as a liquid phase in an LSCFB. But still there is a limited understanding regarding the circulation of particles in an LSCFB with viscous fluids. The aim of our study was to characterize the hydrodynamics in an LSCFB with varying viscosity. Experiments were conducted in a fluidized bed riser of 0.1 m diameter by 2.4 m height with different viscous liquids to study the effects of the operating parameters, namely, primary velocity, secondary velocity, and total velocity, on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the LSCFB with reference to its solid holdup, solid circulation rate, and particle velocity. Experiments were conducted using water and glycerol at different concentrations, and the solid particles (sand and resin) of different densities, but same diameter were used in the experiment. The results indicate that the solid holdup in the riser was axially uniform for viscous liquids, which increased with an increase in auxiliary velocity. The average solid holdup decreased with an increase in total velocity, and it increased with an increase in liquid viscosity as the critical transitional velocity decreased with an increase in viscosity. The solid circulation rate was found to be increased with increased total velocity, auxiliary velocity, and viscosity.