Effect of baffles on bubble behavior in a bubbling fluidized bed for chemical looping processes--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Zhu, X., Feng, X., Zou, Y., & Shen, L. (2020). Effect of baffles on bubble behavior in a bubbling fluidized bed for chemical looping processes. Particuology, 53, 154-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2020.04.003

Effect of baffles on bubble behavior in a bubbling fluidized bed for chemical looping processes

Xiao Zhu, Xuan Feng, Yuanyuan Zou, Laihong Shen ^*

Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

10.1016/j.partic.2020.04.003

Volume 53, December 2020, Pages 154-167

Received 1 December 2018, Revised 13 April 2020, Accepted 22 April 2020, Available online 3 June 2020, Version of Record 16 December 2020.

E-mail: lhshen@seu.edu.cn

Highlights

• Baffles in a bubbling fluidized bed broke up bubbles and improved gas–solid contact.

• A fluidized bed model was simulated based on experimental results.

• The bubble properties, gas–solid distribution, and pressure gradient were analyzed.

• The effects of baffle number and opening ratio were studied.

Abstract

A bubbling fluidized bed is generally used as the fuel reactor in chemical looping processes. However, insufficient gas–solid contact remains a steadfast problem. As such, we propose the use of internal baffles to split bubbles at a high gas velocity and to restrict the movement of large-scale solids in the fluidized bed. We investigated the effect of baffle arrangement on the bubble size and energy, pressure gradient, particle distribution, and particle velocity in a fluidized bed using a computational particle fluid dynamics simulation based on our experimental results. We discuss the main influencing factors, which include presence of caps, number of baffles, and the baffle opening ratio. The baffle structure with caps efficiently broke the large bubbles without creating jet flow. Three baffles were deemed suitable in the bed owing to the small bubble size and uniform gas–solid distribution in each compartment. We selected a baffle opening ratio of 20.5%, which improved the flow pattern without causing a significant increase in the pressure gradient and particle velocity through the baffles. We also discussed the potential for scaling up this baffled fluidized bed for industrial applications.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Baffle; Bubble behavior; Fluidized bed; Chemical looping; CPFD simulations

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