Study on flow characteristics of bidirectional sinusoidal liquid pulsed gas-liquid-solid multiphase fluidized bed

Abstract

Gas-liquid-solid three-phase fluidized bed has been widely used in chemical, biotechnology and environmental industries for its advantages of large inter-phase contact area, high heat/mass transfer efficiency and intense reaction process. In this work, the bidirectional sinusoidal liquid pulsed GLS fluidized bed was proposed to improve the interphase relative velocity and reaction efficiency. The effects of particle properties and pulsed liquid amplitude/frequency on the flow characteristics were studied by numerical simulations and experiments. In a complete circulation period, the average axial solids holdup is larger near the middle region of the fluidized bed and gradually decreases along the upper and lower inlets. With the increase of pulsation amplitude or period, the axial average gas holdup distribution uniformity and the liquid-solid relative velocity increase significantly. Compared with the conventional upward gas-liquid-solid fluidized bed, the bidirectional fluidized bed can further improve the liquid-solid relative velocity and reaction efficiency. The obtained studies have important implications for better design, scale-up and operation of gas-liquid-solid multiphase fluidization systems.