Abstracts

A novel reactor named Gas-Driven Inverse Liquid-Solid Fluidized Bed (GDFB for short) was developed in this research. A vertical baffle divides the column into a riser and a downer. Inverse fluidization is driven by the gas and occurs in the downer, where hydrodynamics and their influencing factors were studied. In the solid-baffle system, four fluidization regimes were observed, including the packed bed, semi-fluidized bed, fully-fluidized bed, and circulating bed. Bed expansion ratio was higher for particles with a higher density and a smaller solids loading. Moreover, the average particle velocity was proportional to superficial gas velocity and higher for denser particles. In the meshed-baffle system, the shifted bed was found between the fully-fluidized bed and the circulating bed, and some hydrodynamics differed from that in the solid-baffle system. Considering the similarity and diversity, a solid baffle or a meshed baffle should be selected depending on the needs of chemical processes.