Effect of Local Bed Hydrodynamics on the Distribution of Liquid in a Fluidized Bed

In an industrial Fluid CokerTM, liquid bitumen is injected into a bed of hot coke particles through spray nozzles, grouped in several banks at different vertical positions. The main objective of this thesis is to determine whether significant improvements in liquid-solid contact could be achieved by optimizing the location of the spray nozzles. In the coker regions where bitumen is injected, the gas is a mixture of product vapors and steam. Steam introduced at different levels rises through the coker: the stripping steam is injected near the bottom, then the attrition steam above the stripper and finally the bitumen atomization steam. As a result, the cross-sectional averaged gas velocity greatly varies vertically, from the lowest spray bank to the highest spray bank. In addition, there are large radial variations in gas velocity, as gas bubbles tend to concentrate in the central region of the bed. In this study, the impacts on liquid-solid contact of gas velocity and uneven gas distribution were investigated. The effects of spray pulsations and atomization gas flowrate on liquid distribution were also studied. Effects of bed hydrodynamics on the initial liquid distribution and on the subsequent drying were studied separately. The results indicate that jet pulsations or increasing the atomization gas flowrate improve the liquid distribution. Large improvements in liquid distribution were achieved by increasing the superficial gas velocity and also increasing the gas velocity at the end of the spray jet cavity, for all types of spray jets, pulsating or non-pulsating.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Eng Sci

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Li, Lingchao

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Berruti, Franco
• Cedric Briens

• Fluid CokerTM
• liquid distribution
• gas velocity
• gas distribution
• jet stability
• gas to liquid ratio
• agglomerate formation

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/27326

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/27326