Mass transfer in inverse fluidized beds

Abstract

In this work, the coefficient of fluid-wall mass transfer in an inverse fluidized bed was determined using the adsorption method. The experiments were carried out in a column with a diameter of 45 mm with spherical and non-spherical particles of polypropylene and polyethylene with a diameter of 3.3–4.9 mm and a density of about 930 kg m-3. A diluted solution of methylene blue was used as a fluidization medium, which was adsorbed on part of the surface of the column on silica gel. The obtained results showed that the presence of particles during inverse fluidization does not contribute significantly to mass transfer compared to the influence of particles on transfer in conventional fluidized beds. Therefore, the pseudo-fluid concept was introduced into the analysis and an empirical correlation was performed to determine the mass transfer coefficient. The obtained results were compared with literature correlations for inverse and conventional fluidized beds.

Keywords

• inverse fluidization
• fluid-wall mass transfer
• pseudo-fluid