Hydrodynamic study of the operating window of a stator-rotor vortex chamber reactor

Abstract

The gas-solid vortex reactor is promising for process intensification while the huge gas consumption and relatively low solids loading can be a hurdle for some industrial applications. Therefore, an improved design, the stator-rotor vortex chamber (STARVOC) has been proposed. To construct the operating window, five materials with sizes of 300–1000 μm and densities of 700–2330 kg/m3 are tested at varying rotational speeds from 300 to 600 RPM and superficial gas flow rates from 0 to 2.3 m/s. A quantitative assessment of the bed's axial uniformity is conducted and a minimum rotational speed is determined. A semi-empirical correlation is developed for the terminal velocity of particles, enabling obtaining maximum solids loading and identifying maximum rotational speed. It is found that the operating window can be divided into six zones and the appropriate zone for uniform fluidization is identified. This framework provides operational guidelines for STARVOC implementation in drying and reactive applications.