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Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2391–2394

Short communication

Minimum fluidization velocity at elevated temperature

in tapered fluidized bed
D.C. Sau a,∗ , Swati Mohanty c , K.C. Biswal b
a National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur-831007, Jharkhand, India
b Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar-751013, Orissa, India
c National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-769008, Orissa, India

Received 2 July 2007; accepted 15 November 2007

Available online 14 December 2007

Abstract
Very little data of minimum fluidization velocity at elevated temperatures of tapered bed are available in the literature. This study was undertaken to
provide some data under elevated temperature conditions in tapered bed. Data on minimum fluidization velocity have been obtained experimentally
for temperature up to 800 ◦ C in case of 0.5 mm diameter of sand particles and up to 500 ◦ C in case of 1 mm diameter of glass beads in tapered bed.
An equation valid for the bed has been developed in terms of Archimedes number and Reynolds number. The experimental values for minimum
fluidization velocity at elevated temperatures have been compared with the calculated values obtained from present equation and from earlier
equations developed by other authors for ambient conditions in conventional (cylindrical) bed and tapered bed. Fairly good agreement was found
to exist between the calculated (from present equation) and the experimental values.
© 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Minimum fluidization velocity; Tapered bed; Elevated temperatures; Gas–solid fluidization

1. Introduction In most of the above elevated temperature studies, spheri-

cal particles were frequently used in order to eliminate eventual
Application of tapered fluidized bed technique is versatile complications caused by non-spherical shapes of solids which
in the field of high temperature processes viz. coal combus- is encountered in actual practice. Further all the studies were
tion and gasification, gas–solid catalytic reaction, etc. Prediction conducted in conventional (cylindrical) beds. In the recent past,
of minimum fluidized velocity at elevated temperatures is a fluidization in tapered bed is gaining importance in view of its
pre-requisite in the design and operation of high temperature potential application in gas–solid system involving continuously
fluidized beds. Several investigations have been made during decreasing particle size in combustion and gasification of coal,
the last few decades and the Ergun’s [1] equation has been used reduction of iron ores [12], etc. Although some investigations
to correlate the experimental data in most of the cases [2–8]. have been carried out in conical bed [13,14] and tapered bed
Equations with particle sphericity range have been proposed by [15,16] for prediction of minimum fluidization velocity under
Lukas et al. [9] based on Brownell’s approach [10] of bed com- ambient conditions, similar data at elevated temperature condi-
pactness to eliminate the minimum bed porosity dependence of tions in tapered bed are not available.
the minimum fluidization velocity. In this present work, investigations have been carried out
Yamazaki et al. [11] have developed a model for predicting at elevated temperatures to obtain the correlation of minimum
minimum fluidization velocity at elevated temperatures based on fluidization velocity (independent of bed voidage) in tapered
quantitative relationship between the velocity and the adhesive bed for gas–solid system and the correlation has been compared
force of particles. with values obtained by equation of Sau et al. [16] proposed
for tapered bed in ambient conditions in gas–solid systems. In
addition, the best fit to the presented results have also been
compared with the equations developed for conventional (cylin-
∗ Corresponding author. drical) beds available in the literature under ambient conditions
E-mail address: [email protected] (D.C. Sau). and at elevated temperatures.

0255-2701/$ – see front matter © 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.cep.2007.11.016
2392 D.C. Sau et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2391–2394

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up. 1: Compressor; 2: receiver; 3: silica gel tower; 4: bypass valve; 5: line valve; 6: rotameter; 7: bed materials; 8: fluidizer; 9: pressure
tapping to manometer; 10: heater; 11: thermocouple.

2. Experimental set-up and procedure superficial gas velocity. Minimum fluidization velocities at dif-
ferent temperature were obtained from superficial gas velocity
A schematic diagram of the experimental set-up is shown in versus pressure drop curve. The superficial gas velocity at which
Fig. 1. The three-dimensional tapered column were made of Per- the pressure drop was maximum was taken as minimum fluidiza-
spex sheets of tapered angle 4.61◦ .The bottom diameter of the tion velocity. The movements of the particle were also visually
column was 48 mm, top diameter was 132 mm and the height was observed with the help of a sight glass fixed near the top of
520 mm. A 60-mesh screen at the bottom served as the support as the fluidizer to cross-check the minimum fluidization velocity
well as the distributor. The calming section of the bed was filled obtained from the plots. Same process was repeated for dif-
with glass beads for uniform distribution of fluid. Two pressure ferent temperature and different particles. The temperature of
taps, one at the entrance (just above the distributor) and the other the bed was recorded by inserting a platinum–rhodium ther-
at the exit section of the bed were provided to record the pres- mocouple and connecting it to a recorder and a millivoltmeter.
sure drops. Pressure drop was measured by a manometer, which Two types of materials (glass beads and sand) were used for
was 1 m long. Carbon tetrachloride (density = 1630 kg m−3 ) was the investigations. Experimental variables have been detailed in
used as the manometric fluid. Air at a temperature of 25 ◦ C Table 1.
(ρf = 1.18 kg m−3 and µf = 1.82 × 10−5 kg m−1 s−1 ) used as the
fluidizing medium was passed through a receiver and a sil- 3. Results and discussions
ica gel tower to dry and control the air flow before being
sent through the tapered column. Two rotameters, one for the Nakamura et al. [7] have developed a correlation for the
lower range (0–10 m3 h−1 ) and the other for the higher range prediction of minimum fluidization velocity at elevated temper-
(10–120 m3 h−1 ), were used to measure the air flow rates. In atures in conventional (cylindrical) bed based on experimental
this present study, at high temperature the bed was made up of data in terms of Reynolds and Archimedes numbers. Developed
stainless steel. The bed along with the material was then heated equations available in the literatures for minimum fluidization
externally inside a cylindrical furnace by using a heater. The velocity in conventional (cylindrical) bed and tapered beds are
heating arrangement of the bed attained the required temperature listed in Table 2. The experimental data from this work were
very fast. also correlated with an equation of the form of Nakamura et al.
A sample of a fluidized material was charged to the column [7] as follow:
and the stagnant bed height was recorded. In each experimental
process, the flow rate of the fluidizing medium was increased Ar = K1 Remf + K2 Re2mf (4)
incrementally. When a stable state was established after each
Regression analysis gave values of the constants:
increment, records were taken from steady readings on the
manometer to obtain pressure drop and on the rotameter to obtain K1 = 2630.76 (5)

Table 1
Ranges of experimental variables
Materials Density (kg/m3 ), ρs Sphericity (φs ) Initial Static bed height (m) Particle size (mm), dp Temperature range (◦ C) Bed voidage (ε0 )

Glass bead 2600 1 0.07 1.0 0–500 0.42

Sand 2638 0.7 0.07 0.5 0–800 0.48
 D.C. Sau et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2391–2394 2393

Table 2
Developed equations for minimum fluidization velocity in conventional (cylindrical) bed and tapered beds
Authors Correlations Remarks

Wen and Yu [2] Ga = 1650Remf + 24.5Re2mf (1) For conventional bed, ambient conditions
Nakamura et al. [7] Ga = 1460Remf + 21.5Re2mf (2) For conventional bed, elevated temperatures
 ε −0.6108
0
Sau et al. [16] Fr = 0.2714(Ar)0.3197 (sin α)0.6092 (3) For tapered beds, ambient conditions
∅s

K2 = 10.34 (6) mum fluidization velocity decreases for both types of particles.
Although the proposed correlation does not take into account
Then the effect of tapered angle, it can predict the minimum fluidiza-
0.5 tion velocity reasonably well at elevated temperatures over the
Remf = [(127.21)2 + 0.0967Ar] − 127.21 (7)
range of variables investigated. It has also been seen that vis-
T 0.65
 
µT cosity increases with increasing in temperature but gas density
= (8) decreases as temperature increases. In spite of these two oppos-
µ273 273
ing effects, minimum fluidization velocity decreases with rise in
Obtained correlation agreed well with the experimental data temperature. This shows that viscosity has greater influence on
in the range of Ar number 6 × 102 < Ar < 105 . minimum fluidization velocity compared to density at elevated
Experimental values of minimum fluidization velocity have temperatures. Moreover, as temperature rises, various types of
been obtained from the plot of superficial gas velocity versus particle degradation like mechanical degradation and thermal
pressure drop. One such plot is shown in Fig. 2. Experimental degradation occur. As a result particle size is reduced and the
values of minimum fluidization velocity have been compared minimum fluidization velocity is also reduced at high temper-
with the calculated ones obtained with the help of earlier equa- atures. For small size particles percentage of errors are more
tions developed for conventional (cylindrical) beds and tapered due to strong adhesion effect between particles. For small size
beds in Figs. 3 and 4 for spherical and non-spherical particles, particles at low temperatures, the errors are large due to strong
respectively. Density and viscosity of air at different tempera- adhesion effects but at high temperatures the errors are less with
tures have been calculated from ideal gas law equation and Eq. reduced adhesion effect. It is also evident from Figs. 3 and 4 that
(8), respectively. As is evident, values obtained by Eq. (7) com- all equations show similar trends but the equations developed for
pare well with the experimental ones obtained in the present conventional beds and tapered beds at ambient conditions can
case for spherical particles. The average percentage of errors not be used for tapered beds at elevated temperature conditions
is 8.36% in case of spherical particles. For non-spherical par- due to large errors.
ticles, values calculated by the proposed equation are slightly
more. The average percentage of error is 19.11%. It is also
seen from Figs. 3 and 4 that as temperature increases mini-

Fig. 3. Comparison of minimum fluidization velocity (experimental) with cal-

Fig. 2. Effect of superficial gas velocity on pressure drop (particle = glass bead, culated from different models (for spherical particles (glass bead) of diameter
diameter = 1 mm, temperature = 25 ◦ C). 1 mm).
2394 D.C. Sau et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2391–2394

Appendix A. Nomenclature

gdp3 (ρs −ρf )ρf

Ar (Ga) Archimedes number = µ2f
dp particle diameter (m)
Fr Froude number = √Umf
gdp
g acceleration due to gravity (m s−2 )
K1 coefficient in Eq. (4)
K2 coefficient in Eq. (4)
Remf Reynold′ s number at minimum fluidization condition =
dp Umf ρf
µf
T temperature (K)
Umf minimum fluidization velocity (m s−1 )

Greek letters
α tapered angle of the bed (◦ )
ε0 bed voidage
Fig. 4. Comparison of minimum fluidization velocity (experimental) with cal- µf viscosity of the fluid (kg m−1 s−1 )
culated from different models (for non-spherical particles (sand) of diameter
µT viscosity of the fluid at particular temperature
0.5 mm).
(kg m−1 s−1 )
µ273 viscosity of the fluid at 273 K (kg m−1 s−1 )
4. Conclusions ρf density of gas (kg m−3 )
ρs density of solid (kg m−3 )
The hydrodynamic features of the tapered bed are very differ- φs sphericity of the particles
ent from those of the conventional (cylindrical) fluidized bed;
therefore the known equations cannot be used in calculating References
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