Impact of vertical internals on the hydrodynamics and separation performance of a gas–solid separation fluidized bed

Abstract

Gas–solid separation fluidized beds are one of the main equipment for the clean utilization of coal resources in China. The vertical internals has a strong influence on the fluidized beds. The combination of Fluent simulation and experimental measurements was used to study the performance of a fluidized bed. The results show that vertical internals can inhibit the formation of larger bubbles evidently at high gas velocity, and divide the original particle circulation flow field into several small cycles, which plays a positive role in promoting the particle mixing, thus, improving the fluidization quality. A fluidized bed with five vertical internals was used to separate 6–50 mm raw coal. The ash content of clean coal is 16.03% with a yield of 43.29%, while the ash content of gangue is 43.60% with a yield of 56.71%. Probable error, E, value is as low as 0.13 g/cm3, which indicates good separation performance.