INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

CHN-326: Fluidization Engineering

Introduction

Department of Chemical Engineering

 Fluidization

• Fluidization is the operation by which solid particles are

transformed into a fluid like state through suspension in a
gas or liquid.

OR

• Fluidization refers to those gas–solid and liquid–solid system

in which the solid phase is subjected to behave more or less
like a fluid by the upward current of gas or liquid stream
moving through the bed of solid particles.

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Applications of Fluidization

• Fluidized bed combustion (coal gasification and

carbonization)
• Catalytic cracking of heavy oil to obtain Gasoline or LPG
• Heat exchange
• Drying operations
• Coating of metals with polymer
• Solidification/Granulation
• Synthesis reaction
• Incineration of solid wastes
• Biofluidization

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Fluidization Phenomena

• Clearly defined upper limit or surface to the bed

– Expanded bed
– Incipiently (a bed at minimum fluidization) fluidized bed
– Particulately (homogeneous or smoothly) fluidized bed
– Aggregative (heterogeneous or bubbling) fluidized bed
• Not defined upper limit or surface to the bed
– Slugging (axial and flat slugs)
– Turbulent fluidization
– Lean phase fluidization with pneumatic transport
• Circulating fluidized beds
– Bubbling, turbulent or fluid bed
– Fast fluidized bed
• Spouted fluidized bed
Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Fluidization Phenomena

• Fixed bed
– When a fluid is passed upward through a bed of
fine particles, at a low flow rate, the fluid merely
percolates through the void spaces between
stationary particles.
• Expanded bed
– With an increase in flow rate, particles move
apart and a few vibrate and move in restricted
regions.

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Fluidization Phenomena

• Incipiently fluidized bed (a bed at minimum

fluidization)
– At a still higher velocity, a point is reached where
all the particles are just suspended by the
upward flowing gas or liquid:
Friction force between particle and fluid
= weight of the particle
Or
Pressure drop through any section of the bed
= weight of the fluid and particles in this section

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Fluidization Phenomena

• Particulately (homogeneous or smoothly)

fluidized bed
– In liquid–solid systems, an increase in flow rate
above minimum fluidization usually results in a
smooth, progressive expansion of the bed.
– Instabilities are damped or very small and
heterogeneity is not observed
– In gas–solid systems, such condition is
observed only under special conditions of fine
light particles with dense gas at high pressure.

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Fluidization Phenomena
• Aggregative (heterogeneous or bubbling)
fluidized bed
– In gas–solid systems, an increase in flow rate
above minimum fluidization usually results in
large instabilities with bubbling and channeling
of gas.
– At high flow rates, agitation become more violent
and the movement of solids becomes more
vigorous.
– Bed does not expand much beyond its volume
at minimum fluidization. Instabilities are damped
or very small and heterogeneity is not observed
– In liquid–solid systems, such condition is
observed with very dense solids fluidized by
low–density liquids.

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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 Fluidization Phenomena

Fine particles Coarse particles Fine particles Fine particles

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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Fluidization Phenomena
Circulating fluidized bed Spoutted Bed
(Fine particles) (Coarse particles)

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 References

• Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”,

2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
• Davidson D. and Harrison J. F., “Fluidization Engineering”,
2nd Ed., Academic Press, 1992.
• Yang W. C., “Handbook of Fluidization and Fluid Particle
Systems”, 3rd Ed., CRC, 2003.

Kunii D. and Levenspiel O., “Fluidization Engineering”, 2nd Ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991.
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