Solids flow

Total pressure drop for horizontal gas/solid flow includes acceleration effects at the entrance to the pipe and fric tional effects beyond the entrance region. A great number of correlations for pressure gradient are available, none of which is applicable to all flow regimes. Govier and Aziz review many of these and provide recommendations on when to use them. 

Farbar [Trans. Am. Soc. Mech. Eng., 75,943-951 (1953)] describes how a venturi meter can be used to measure solids flow rate in a gas-solids mixture when the gas rate is held constant. Separate calibration curves (solids flowversus differential) are required for each gas rate of interest. 

Cheng, Tung, and Soo [J. Eng. Power, 92, 135-149 (1970)] describe the use of an electrostatic probe for measurement of solids flow in a gas-solids mixture. 

Moving-Bed Type This concept uses a single-pass tube bundle in a vertical shell with the dividea solids flowing by gravity in the tubes. It is little used for sohds. A major difficulty in divided-sohds apphcations is the problem of charging and discharging with uniformity. A second is poor heat-transfer rates. Because of these hmita-tions, this tube-bundle type is not the workhorse for solids that it is for liquid and gas-phase heat exchange. 

FIG. 11 -58 Stationary vertical-tube type of indirect beat-transfer equipment with divided solids inside tubes, laminar solids flow and steady-state beat conditions. 

FIG. 12-33 Cocurrent gas-solids flow in a vertical-lift dilute-phase pneumatic conveyor. 

A discussion of retention time in rotary Idlns is given in Brit. Chem. Eng., 27-29 (Januaiy 1966). Rotary-ldln heat control is discussed in detail by Bauer [Chem. Eng., 193-200 (May 1954)] and Zubrzycki [Chem. Can., 33-37 (Februaiy 1957)]. Reduction of iron ore in rotaiy Idlns is described by Stewart [Min. Congr J., 34—38 (December 1958)]. The use of balls to improve solids flow is discussed in [Chem. Eng., 120-222 (March 1956)]. Brisbane examined problems of shell deformation [ Min. Eng., 210-212 (Februaiy 1956)]. Instrumentation is discussed by Dixon [Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev., 1436-1441 (July 1954)], and a mathematical simulation of a rotaiy Idln was developed by Sass [Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev., 532-535 (October 1967)]. This last paper employed the empirical convection heat-transfer coefficient given previously, and its use is discussed in later correspondence [ibid., 318-319 (April 1968)]. 

FIG. 12-860 Countercurrent gas-solids flow at the top disengaging section of a moving-bed catalytic reactor. 

Gas flow and solids flow are usually cocurrent, one exception being a countercurrent-flow spray diyer. The method of gas-solids contact-... 

Standpipes, Solids Feeders, and Solids Flow Control. 17-10... 

Gas Distrihutor The gas distributor has a considerable effect on proper operation of the flmdized bed. Basically there are two types (1) For use when the inlet gas contains solids and (2) for use when the inlet gas is clean. In the latter case, the distributor is designed to prevent Back flow of sohds during normal operation, and in many cases it is designed to prevent back flow during shutdown. In order to provide distribution, it is necessary to restrict the gas or gas and solids flow so that pressure drops across the restriction amount to from 0.5 kPa (2 in of water) to 20 kPa (3 Ibf/iu ). 

FIG. 17-16 Solids-flow-control devices, a) Slide valve, (h) Rotary valve, (c) Table feeder, (d) Screw feeder, (e) Cone valve, (f ) L Valve. 

Seal legs are frequently used in conjunction with solids-flow-control valves to equ ize pressures and to strip trapped or adsorbed gases from the sohds. The operation of a seal leg is shown schemati-caUy in Fig. 17-19. The sohds settle by gravity from the fluidized bed into the seal leg or standpipe. Seal and/or stripping gas is introduced near the bottom of the leg. This gas flows both upward and downward. Pressures indicated in the ihustratiou have no absolute value but are only relative. The legs are designed for either fluidized or settled solids. 

In the steady-state operation of the OXITOX reactor, pelletized solid of catalytieally aetivated sodium earbonate slides down a Silo type reaetor. Counter-current to the solid flow, the polluted air rises through the sliding bed of solids. At reaction temperature the following reaetion oecurs ... 

Conveying systems normally use air as the transport medium to convey granular, crushed, or pulverized materials. Modelling the flow of pneumatic conveying and calculating its pressure loss is a problematic task. The greatest problem arises from the fact that different mass flow ratios, solid flow rate divided by the gas flow rate, imply different flow types in pneumatic conveying. Each of these flow types, which can be classified in many different ways, requires its own specific model in order to provide a concrete calculation method. 

Solid flow rate Recycling flow rate Eluent flow rate Extract flow rate Eeed flow rate Raffinate flow rate ... 

P ) Qpp- The specification of P and the solid flow rate (or, alternatively, one of the liquid flow rates) defines all the flow rates throughout the TMB system. The P parameter has a higher limit, since the feed flow rate must be higher than zero, 1 < /3 < v t. The case of /3 = 1 corresponds to the situation where dilution of species is minimal, and the extract and raffinate product concentrations approach the feed concentrations. In fact, for /3 = 1, we obtain = Qf = = ( - 1) = (Kg... 

The influence of the switch time interval on the purity is shown in Fig. 9-10. A change on the switch time interval will lead to a change on the equivalent solid flow rate throughout the system. In all runs the inlet and outlet flow rates, as well as the internal liquid flow rates in all the four sections of the SMB unit, are kept constant. 

Increasing the switch time interval is equivalent to decrease the solid flow rate and the net fluxes of components in all sections of the TMB unit will be pushed in the same direction of the liquid phase. This implies that, first, the more retained species will move upwards in section III and will contaminate the raffinate stream and the less retained species will move upwards in section IV, will be recycled to section I, and will contaminate also the extract stream. The decrease of the switch time interval will have similar consequences. The equivalent solid flow rate will increase and the net fluxes of component in all four sections of the TMB unit will be pushed in the opposite direction of the liquid phase. This implies that, first, the less-retained species will move downwards in section II and will contaminate the extract stream and the more retained component will also move downwards in section I, will be recycled with the solid to the section IV, and will contaminate the raffinate stream. It is possible to obtain simultaneously high purities and recoveries in a SMB, but the tuning must be carefully carried out. 

In addition, both the recycling and the solid flow rates are also kept constant. 

Considering that the separation system is fully characterized, i.e., adsorbent and mobile phases, column dimensions, SMB configuration and feed concentration, the optimization of the TMB operating conditions consists in setting the liquid flow rates in each section and also the solid flow rate. The resulting optimization problem with five variables will be certainly tedious and difficult to implement. Fortunately, the... 

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