Development of a New C-Plus Particle Fluidized Bed Reactor

向上流动的气体通过颗粒最终会使它们悬浮起来，形成一层悬浮颗粒层，在那里颗粒的大界面表面积完全暴露在向上流动的气体中。这种“流态化”技术已被广泛应用于工业过程中，利用了较大的表面积。例如，由于空气和煤颗粒之间的有效接触，发电中的煤燃烧通过将细煤颗粒悬浮(流态化)在气流中而变得非常有效。由于悬浮颗粒与气相有很好的接触，导致非常高的反应效率，所以在化学反应器中应用最广泛。然而，由于颗粒尺寸减小而产生的非常强的颗粒间力导致的颗粒聚集阻止了5-30微米的细颗粒在流态化中的使用，否则将提供更大的界面接触面积。如果人们能够“释放”隐藏在这些细颗粒凝聚体中的大表面积，就存在着将流态化床的反应器效率提高一倍甚至四倍的巨大潜力。在化工行业，即使是很小的效率提高，也会带来巨大的经济效益。申请人源于他在粉末涂料行业的长期工作经验，该行业经常向30-60微米的细微涂层颗粒中添加纳米颗粒，以确保其良好的流动性，申请人最近提出了一种新的C-Plus颗粒理论(正在申请专利)：所谓的C-Plus颗粒主要由具有凝聚力的Geldart-C颗粒(5-30微米)和精选的纳米颗粒组成，以“调节”凝聚力，使它们不仅可流态化，而且具有更好的流态化质量。初步试验表明，C+颗粒的流态化非常顺利，与常规的沸腾床反应器相比，床膨胀高达200%，化学转化率高达200%。拟议项目的短期目标是通过参数研究，全面探索这一C+颗粒沸腾床。长期目标是将这项技术在流程工业中商业化。另一个目标是扩展我们现有的流态化理论，以包括关于细颗粒流态化的新理论。这有望导致化学反应工程领域的重大突破。申请人在各种流态化技术和细颗粒应用方面已经工作了25年，因此他的团队拥有完成拟议研究的专业知识和必要的仪器。申请人雄厚的科研项目和丰富的培训经验，加上一流的设施，将为HQP提供最佳的培训环境。

Upflowing gas through particles can eventually suspend them to form a "fluidized bed", a layer of suspended particles where the large inter-facial surface area of the particles are fully exposed to the upflowing gas. This "fluidization" technology has been widely applied in industrial processes, utilizing the large surface area. For example, coal combustion in electricity generation was made very efficient by suspending (fluidizing) fine coal particles in the air stream given the effective contact between air and coal particles. The largest application of fluidized bed is in chemical reactors because the suspended particles have excellent contact with the gas phase, leading to very high reaction efficiency. However, particle agglomeration due to very strong inter-particle forces, arising from the reduced particle size, has prevented the use of fine particles of 5-30 microns in fluidization, which would otherwise provide even larger interfacial contact areas. There exists a huge potential to double or even quadruple the reactor efficiency of fluidized beds if one can "release" the large surface area hidden in the agglomerates of those fine particles. In chemical industry, even a small increase in efficiency will lead to huge economic benefits. Originating from his long term working experience with the powder coating industry where nano particles have been routinely added into fine coating particles of 30-60 microns to ensure their good flowability, the applicant has recently proposed a new theory of C-Plus particles (patent pending): The so-called C-Plus particles consist of primarily cohesive Geldart-C particles (5-30 microns) and selected nano-particles to "modulate" the cohesion, making them not only fluidizable but with better fluidization quality. Preliminary tests have shown that the C-plus particles fluidize very smoothly with up to 200% high bed expansion and up to 200% chemical conversion compared to regular fluidized bed reactors. The short term objective of the proposed project is to fully explore this C-plus particle fluidized bed, with parametric study. The long term objective is to commercialize this technology in the process industry. An additional objective is to expand our current fluidization theory to include new theory on the fluidization of fine particles. This is expected to lead to a major breakthrough in the field of chemical reaction engineering. The applicant has been working on various fluidization technologies and fine particle applications for over 25 years, so his group has the expertise and the necessary instrumentations to complete the proposed research. The great research project and the extensive training experiences of the applicant, plus the excellent facility, will provide the best training environment for HQPs.