Hydrodynamic studies of an advanced fluidized-bed bioreactor for direct interaction with coal

✍ Scribed by Timothy C. Scott; John M. Cosgrove; Mohammed Asif; James N. Petersen

• Book ID: 103091295
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 463 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-2361(93)90358-9

✦ Synopsis

Fine coal particles fluidized by the upflow of a liquid medium containing a dissolved biocatalyst undergo size reduction as the reaction progresses. Three aspects of the design of such a reactor were examined: (1) the use of force balances to describe pressure drop for the segregated bed; (2) measurement of liquid-phase dispersion coefficients; and (3) fluorescent tagging of particles to track size distribution. Hydrodynamic data were obtained for a liquid-solid fluidized bed of coal particles in the size range 3&150pm. Illinois No. 6 coal was ball-milled, sieved into four fractions, and suspended in a 0.1% aqueous solution of Tween 80. A sample with a bimodal particle size distribution centred on 49 and 63pm was placed in a glass column and fluidization and pressure-drop data were compared with a new model developed to describe particle segregation. Measured liquid-phase dispersion coefficients varied from 0.034 to