FLOW THROUGH PACKED FIXED AND FLUIDIZED BEDS

http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/CHE/alshami/teaching/Che%20204/Lecture%20Notes/Chapter%204_L
ect%20Notes_Fluid%20Through%20Packed%20Beds%20and%20Fluidization.htm
Chemical engineering operations commonly involve the use of packed fixed and fluidized
beds. These are equipment in which a large surface area for contact between a liquid and a gas
(absorption, distillation) or a solid and a gas or liquid (adsorption, catalysis) is obtained for
achieving rapid mass and heat transfer, and particularly in the case of fluidized beds, catalytic
chemical reactions.
A typical packed bed is a cylindrical column that is filled with a suitable packing material. The
liquid is distributed as uniformly as possible at the top of the column and flows downward, wetting
the packing material. A gas is admitted at the bottom, and flows upward, contacting the liquid in a
countercurrent fashion.

From a fluid mechanics perspective, the most important issue is that of the pressure drop required
for the liquid or the gas to flow through the column at a specific flow rate. To calculate this
quantity, we proceed as follows:
We start, as always, with the generalized energy equation derived previously,

Analyzing the system yields the following:

; Entering fluid leaves the column at the same speed (ie., continuity principle).

; No work done by or on the fluid

; change in elevation (zoutlet – zinlet) equals the total length of the column.
Substituting yields:

Also, previously we determined for flow in a pipe that:

Now, let’s further simplify the system by making these assumptions:
1. For a horizontal bed or small L, gravity effect can be neglected.
2. Particles pack uniformly (ie., in stacks) resulting with continuous flow channels.
3. Bed can be modeled as a bundle of small pipes.

4. Flow is laminar (ie., )

With these assumptions, the above two equations can be combined to give:

Now, the question is what velocity and diameter do we use?

 Should we use the ‘superficial velocity’ (the velocity that we cannot really see but can
calculate it using the continuity equation as the overall volumetric flow rate divided by the
overall column diameter), or should we use the actual velocity of the fluid travelling in the
empty spaces between the packing particles?
 The packed bed is not a straight empty pipe, but rather a ‘bundle of pipes’ of irregular
shapes. Therefore, we have the overall diameter pipe and the actual ‘hydraulic diameter’
(diameter in actual contact with the fluid), which one should we use?
The answers to the above hypothetical questions are obviously: actual velocity and actual diameter;
and they are determined as follows:

Velocity

Where ε is the void fraction defined as:

And,

Substituting yields:

And the hydraulic radius is defined as:

Multiplying by L/L, gives:

Solving for , yields:

Where

Wetted surface area = total solids surface area =

Substituting above for Dh, gives:

Finally, substituting above for the pressure drop, yields:

The real situation is that the flow flows in a tortuous path (not straight as was initially assumed),
and bed length can not really be ignored, therefore, experimental results has consistently resulted
with data suggesting replacing the constant 72 by 150:

This is known as the Blake-Kozeny equation. (best use for ).

Now, in the above derivations we considered laminar flow (ie., )! For turbulent flow, the
pressure drop is:

For flows with Re > 1000, experimental data shows that the above equation is better presented as:

This equation is known as the Burke-Plummer Equation.

For the Transition region, the Ergun equation is to be used:
The Ergun equation is commonly expressed as follows in different references:

Note:
 The above equation can be used with gases using average gas density between inlet and
outlet
 Flow turbulent flow, the 1st term on the RHS vanishes
 For laminar flow, the 2nd term on the RHS can be ignored
Therefore, to solve problems, one could just start with the Ergun equation, and can either use one of
the terms on the RHS depending on the flow regime (laminar or turbulent) or even use the equation
as is with minimal change!

Example

Air ( = 1.22 Kg/m3, = 1.9 X 10 –-5 pa.s) is flowing in a fixed bed of a diameter 0.5 m and height 2.5 m.
The bed is packed with spherical particles of diameter 10 mm. The void fraction is 0.38. The air mass flow
rate is 0.5 kg/s. Calculate the pressure drop across the bed of particles.

Solution

Q = volumetric flow rate = = 0.41 m3/s

A = D2 = (0.5)2 = 0.1963 m2

u = = = 2.1 m/s

Rep = =

Rep = 2174

fp = + 1.75 = 1.819

= 1.819

= 0.276 X 105 pa.

Fluidized Beds
A fluidized bed is a packed bed through which fluid flows at such a high velocity that the bed is
‘loosened’ and the particle-fluid mixture behaves as though it is a fluid. Thus when a bed of
particles is fluidized, the entire bed can be transported as a fluid. Both gas and liquid flows can be
used to fluidize a bed of particles. The most common reason for fluidizing a bed is to obtain
vigorous agitation of the solids in contact with the fluid, leading to an enhanced transport
mechanism (diffusion, convection, and mass/energy transfer). Fluidized beds are common in
operations involving petroleum cracking, catalysts regeneration, solid-gas reactors, combustion of
coal, roasting of ores, drying, and gas absorption operations.
To analyze the system and model it, we need to consider the response of the particles in the bed to
the applied flow rate (ie., superficial velocity):

 Low velocity: fluid does not impart enough drag to overcome gravity and particles do not
move.  Fixed Bed.
 High velocity: at high enough velocities, fluid drag plus buoyancy overcome the
gravitational force and the bed expands.  Fluidized Bed.
 ∆P for increasing um: until onset of fluidization, ∆P increases, and then becomes constant.
 Bed length for increasing um: L is constant until onset of fluidization and then begins to
increase.
These situations are depicted in the figure below:

As with fixed beds where the ultimate objective of modeling the system is to enable determination
of the required ∆P to ‘push’ the fluid through the packed particles; here, in fluidized beds, the
primary objective is:

 Enable calculating the minimum flow rate (ie, velocity) needed to establish
fluidization. When the superficial velocity is equal to the fluid velocity, we refer to the
state of the bed as one of incipient fluidization.
 Enable calculating the maximum velocity that can obtained without allowing the particles
to be carried out with the fluid at the exit. This velocity is commonly known as the
‘settling velocity’.
To meet both objectives, we begin analyzing the system as follows:
As was stated previously, at fluidization the drag and buoyancy forces overcome the gravitational
force. So, if we balance the forces acting on the particles as was done in the ‘drag forces on solid
particles in a fluid’ analysis, we should result with the velocity at equilibrium, for which imparting
a minute increase to it will cause fluidization:
Before we begin the analysis, we should make a point regarding the ‘drag’ force used in the
analysis of ONE particle moving in a fluid. With one particle, it should be realized that we were
interested in analyzing the forces acting on the particle, for which the surface drag on its surface far
exceeds the effects resulting from the pressure drop across it. However, in packed beds, we are
dealing with an aggregate number of solids and the force effects on these solid particles is
manifested in overall pressure drop across the packing volume. Hence, we will replace FD symbol
used in the previous section dealing with a single particle with FP (pressure force) in this analysis,
rest pretty much the same.

Now, from the previous analysis on fixed beds, takes the form for Rep <
10. Substituting for and solving for , yields:

For the maximum velocity that can be reached while keeping the particles in the bed and preventing
them from leaving at the exit, the fluidization velocity is the same as the settling velocity derived in
the previous section of these notes set:

This due to the fact that when the fluidization velocity is reached (min velocity) a slight increase in
the flow rate (ie., velocity) will cause the bed to increase in volume at constant pressure, and
eventually the particles will become far a part and behaves as single particles suspended in the
fluid.

Example
Air is moving upward in a bed packed with spherical coal particles of diameter 0.1 mm and density
103 kg/m3. The air properties are = 2.4 kg/m3 and = 1.9 X 10–5 pa.s. Find the region for fluidization.

The void fraction of the bed is 0.38

Solution

The start of fluidization and the maximum superficial velocity should be found.

uf =

uf =

= 3 X 10–3 m/s

umax =

umax =

umax = 0.286 m/s

Hence the operation of the bed can be summarized as follows

1) u < uf = 3X10–3 m/s  the bed is fixed bed

2) uf < u < umax = 3 X 10–3 < u < 0.286  The bed is fluidized and the volume of the bed is different
at different velocity.

3) umax < u =0.286 < u  the particles will be carried away by the air and will leave at the bed exit.