Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599

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Particuology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/partic

Sand attrition in conical spouted beds

Aranzazu R. Fernández-Akarregui a , Jon Makibar a , Isabel Alava a , Luis Diaz a , Fernando Cueva a ,
Roberto Aguado b , Gartzen Lopez b , Martin Olazar b,∗
a
Ikerlan-IK4, Juan de 4 la Cierva 1, Arabako Parke Teknologikoa, E-01510 Minao, Araba, Spain
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the Basque Country, P.O. Box 644, E48080 Bilbao, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A study was carried out on the attrition in conical spouted beds using two sands with different properties
Received 19 October 2011 for several bed heights and gas flow rates. Furthermore, the influence of a draft tube was studied at
Received in revised form 4 January 2012 ambient and high temperatures. The main objective was to acquire knowledge on the attrition of sand
Accepted 20 February 2012
beds for biomass pyrolysis in a pilot plant provided with a conical spouted bed reactor. A first-order
kinetic equation is proposed for sand attrition in a conical spouted bed at room temperature. The predicted
Keywords:
attrition rate constant depends exponentially on excess air velocity over that for minimum spouting. Both
Attrition
the draft tube and temperature increase contribute to reduction of attrition.
Conical spouted bed
Draft tube © 2012 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of
Sand attrition Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Spouted beds have been proposed as an alternative to flu-
idized beds for processes that call for efficient fluid–solid contact
(Epstein & Grace, 1997), especially for particles larger than 1 mm
(Freitas & Freire, 2001; Zhao, Li, Liu, Song, & Yao, 2008). An advan-
tage of spouted beds over fluidized beds is the well-defined cyclic
movement of the particles, which facilitates contact between gas
and solid particles (Luo, Lim, Freitas, & Grace, 2004). In fact, both
high solid circulation rate and efficient gas–solid contact favor the
use of spouted beds in many chemical processes (Azizi, Hosseini,
Moraveji, & Ahmadi, 2010; Vieira Neto, Duarte, Murata, & Barrozo,
2008).
In spouted beds, the fluid is introduced through a central nozzle
rather than uniformly through a distributor plate as in fluidized
beds. The fluid enters the bed in the form of a jet and causes the
particles to circulate in a uniform way creating a central spout zone.
The fluid and particles are in counter-current flow in the annulus,
which makes up the major portion of the spouted bed. Particle flow
is co-current with the fluid in the spout, where velocities are high
and residence time is short.
Nowadays, spouted beds are widely used in physical processes,
such as drying (Altzibar et al., 2008; Berghel, Nilsson, & Renstrom,
2008; Markowski, Sobieski, Konopka, Tanska, & Bialobrzewski,
2007), coating and granulation (da Rosa & dos Santos Rocha, 2010;
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 946392527; fax: +34 946393500.
E-mail address: martin.olazar@ehu.es (M. Olazar).
Oliveira, Peixoto, & Freitas, 2005) and in chemical processes involv-
ing combustion (Konduri, Altwicker, & Morgan, 1999), gasification
(Belyaev, 2008; Spiegl, Sivena, Lorente, Paterson, & Milian, 2010),
catalytic polymerization (Olazar, San Jose, Zabala, & Bilbao, 1994)
and pyrolysis of different solid wastes (Aguado, Olazar, Barona, &
Bilbao, 2000; Amutio et al., 2011; Elordi, Olazar, Lopez, Artetxe, &
Bilbao, 2011; Lopez, Olazar, Aguado, & Bilbao, 2010). An overview
of spouted bed reactors was carried out by Olazar, Alvarez, Aguado,
and San Jose (2003).
One of the challenges for scaling up the spouting regime is the
understanding of the process controlling particle size reduction and
the determination of attrition kinetics, which will help to design a
process with high efficiency and reduced fine particle emission.
Moreover, the fines formed must be removed from the out-going
gas stream, thereby increasing the processing cost (Stein, Seville,
& Parker, 1998). Although numerous papers address the attri-
tion in fluidized beds, few provide information on spouted beds.
Mathur and Epstein (1974) devoted a brief chapter in their book
to this subject and, more recently, attrition in spouted beds was
considered for the processing of carbonaceous materials (Buczek,
1983; Wongvicha & Bhattacharya, 1994), calcite (Flamant, Chraibi,
Vallbona, & Bertrand, 1990) and selected polymers (Al-Senawi,
Hadi, Briens, & Chabagno, 2008). To our knowledge, no paper has
been published dealing with the attrition of spouted beds fitted
with a draft tube.
The attrition process is commonly divided into two different
mechanisms causing particle breakage, namely, the abrasion of the
particle surface and the disintegration or fragmentation of the par-
ticle matrix (Boerefijn, Ghadiri, & Salatino, 2007, chap. 25; Lin &

1674-2001/$ – see front matter © 2012 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2012.02.002
 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599 593

Nomenclature

DC diameter of the cylindrical section of the contactor

(m)
Di diameter of the bed bottom (m)
DT diameter of the draft tube (m)
D0 diameter of the bed inlet (m)
ds Sauter diameter (m)
Ea attrition activation energy (m2 /s2 )
HC height of the conical section of the contactor (m)
Hf height of the fountain (m)
HT total height of the contactor (m)
Ka attrition rate constant in Lee’s equation (s−1 )
Kp dimensional constant in Gwyn’s equation (s−m )
K0 frequency factor in an Arrhenius form (s−1 )
k0 kinetic constant in Eq. (4) (s−1 )
k1 kinetic constant in Eq. (4) (m2 /s2 )
LH height of the draft tube entrainment zone (m)
m exponent for time dependence on attrition in
Gwyn’s equation, dimensionless
P pressure (kg/(m s2 ))
Mw molecular weight of air (kg/mol)
Rt attrition rate (kg/s)
t time (s)
Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental setup for attrition tests in a conical spouted
T temperature (K) bed contactor.
umf minimum fluidization velocity (m/s)
u0 inlet air velocity referred to the inlet diameter (m/s) rate at room temperature and proposed a correlation of the follow-
(ums )0 minimum spouting velocity referred to the inlet ing type:
diameter (m/s)
W weight of bed material (kg) Rt = Kp mt m−1 W, (1)
W0 initial mass of particles in the bed (kg) with m = 0.46 and Kp = 4.47 × 10−6 –1.35 × 10−5 s−m .
Lee et al.
We mass of particles in the bed at t time (kg) (1993) investigated lime attrition in a circulating fluidized bed
Wmin minimum weight of parent solids in the bed (kg) absorber at 20–180 ◦ C and found that the predominant mechanism
was surface abrasion. According to these authors, lime attrition
Greek letters decreases as temperature is increased, due to changes in the mate-
 cone angle (rad) rial, whereas limestone attrition increases with temperature due
P pressure drop (kg/(m s2 )) to the decrepitation resulting from increased internal pressure.
The total weight of particles in the bed at time t, We , follows the
equation:
We (t) = (W0 − Wmin )e−Ka t + Wmin , (2)
Wey, 2005; Welt, Lee, & Krambeck, 1977). The factors that affect
attrition dynamics include: (i) the properties of the bed material, where W0 (kg) is the weight of the bed at t = 0, Wmin is the min-
i.e., porosity, size, hardness, density, surface, cracks, shape and par- imum weight for which the attrition is negligible and Ka is the
ticle strength (Lee, Jiang, Keener, & Khang, 1993) and (ii) the reactor attrition rate constant. These authors found that the constant Ka
environment, i.e., exposure time, particle size and velocity (Lin & depends exponentially on activation energy, temperature, superfi-
Wey, 2003, 2005; Shih, Chu, & Hwang, 2003) pressure system and cial air velocity and minimum fluidization velocity in the attrition
type of enclosure (hard or soft surface), shear, temperature (Lin process:
& Wey, 2003, 2005; Arena, D’Amore, & Massimilla, 1983) and vis-
Ka = Ko e−Ea RTCs /PMW u0 (u0 −umf ) . (3)
cosity and turbulence (Bemrose & Bridgwater, 1987). In fluidized
beds, the jetting region is the most significant contributor to par- For lime attrition, the authors related a frequency factor in an
ticle breakage (Boerefijn, Gudde, & Ghadiri, 2000; Boerefijn et al., Arrhenius form, with Ko = 1.29 × 10−4 s−1 , and calculated an attri-
2007) and in the case of spouted beds the same role is probably tion activation energy, Ea = 3.38 × 10−3 kJ/kg.
played by the spout region. Other equations (Halder & Basu, 1992; Kono, 1981; Merrick
Many reports propose empirical correlations for attrition rate & Highley, 1974; Wu, Baeyens, & Chu, 1999) are not suitable for
in bubbling and circulating fluidized bed systems, and interest- spouted beds because they take into account phenomena that do
ing reviews have been reported by Lee et al. (1993) and Lin and not occur in these beds, such as the presence of bubbles, and those
Wey (2005), but no correlation for spouted beds has been found like the second-order model (Cook, Khang, Lee, & Keener, 1996) are
in the literature. This study addresses the kinetics of sand attrition of no direct use for the design of these types of beds.
in a conical spouted bed contactor under different hydrodynamic
conditions. The kinetic equation corresponding to the experimen- 2. Experimental system and test procedure
tal conditions studied has been obtained based on analogies with
certain kinetic equations proposed for fluidized bed systems. The The experimental set-up for sand attrition tests is shown in
closest correlations are those by Gwyn (1969) and Lee et al. (1993), Fig. 1, including an air compressor, a mass flow meter and a
both for fluidized beds. Gwyn (1969) studied silica sand attrition controller, a conical spouted bed contactor, a cyclone, a pressure
594 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599

Fig. 2. Fractional size distribution of the two silica sands (A-GRS07, Sibelco Miner- Fig. 3. Pressure drop evolution with air velocity (6 kg of silica sand I, Do = 15 mm,
als), type I and type II. dS = 1.05 mm).

decreased to the set spouting velocity. This air rises through the
sensor, a thermocouple and a data monitoring system. The attrition
spouting bed, with the sand particles moving upwards in the foun-
experiments were carried out in two different plants, i.e., a conical
tain and falling down again onto the annulus where they continue
spouted bed contactor made of plexiglass and a non-porous draft
moving downwards until arriving at the spout, thus repeating the
tube conical spouted bed reactor made of stainless steel. The latter
full cycle. The air supply is turned off at regular time intervals and
is the main component in a pilot plant unit designed and set up
sand is taken out, weighed and put back into the contactor. At the
for continuously pyrolysing 25 kg/h of biomass. The experimental
beginning of the experiments, the measuring intervals are shorter
runs in this reactor were conducted at both ambient and high tem-
because the attrition process is more severe. When the weight
peratures. The dimensions of both contactors are exactly the same
reduction of the sand reaches a steady state, the test is concluded.
(Fig. 1): the diameter of the upper section (DC ) is 242 mm, the angle
The shape factor of bed particles is measured by optical microscopy
of the contactor is  = 32◦ , the height of the conical section (HC ) is
at the beginning and end of each run, and the image analysis of final
330 mm and the total height (HT ) is 1030 mm. The base diameter
elutriated fines is also obtained by SEM microscopy.
(Di ) is 52 mm and the inlet diameter (Do ) is 15 mm when no internal
Following the methodology described, attrition tests without
device is used, and 25 mm when a non-porous draft tube is used,
the draft tube are carried out at room temperature using air
given that the use of this internal device improves bed stability and,
velocities 1.16 and 1.35 times higher than the minimum spouting
consequently, a greater inlet diameter may be used without insta-
velocity, (u0 )ms , corresponding to the original bed. Thus, air flow
bility problems (Altzibar et al., 2008, 2009; Cunha, Santos, Ataide,
rates of 450 L/min and 574 L/min, corresponding to the spouting
Epstein, & Barrozo, 2009; da Rosa & Freire, 2009; Olazar, Lopez,
velocities (per unit of inlet cross-sectional area) of 48–54 m/s are
Altzibar, & Bilbao, 2011; Vieira Neto et al., 2008). The diameter of
used. Each experiment lasted 420 h.
the draft tube (DT ) is 36 mm and the height of the entrainment zone
In the experiments carried out with a draft tube, the velocities
(LH ) is 80 mm. These dimensions of the draft tube were determined
are 1.35 and 1.65 times higher than those for minimum spouting
in a previous paper (Makibar et al., 2011).
at 25 and 480 ◦ C, respectively. Thus, the flow rates used (measured
A stainless steel mesh (55 mesh size) placed at the base of the
at ambient conditions) are 472 L/min for ambient temperature and
contactor supports the sand. Air (25 ◦ C and 480 ◦ C, 1 atm) was used
210 L/min for 480 ◦ C, and the runs are carried out using type II sand.
as the spouting medium. The outlet air from the contactor entered
The reduction in the gas flow rate required for the operation at
the cyclone where the elutriated fines are collected. The air flow
high temperatures is explained by the increase in gas viscosity and,
rate was measured by a mass flow meter (Brooks, 5853S). Pressure
therefore, by the increase in the momentum transfer from the gas
was measured by a differential pressure transducer (RS 286-686).
to the solid, which facilitates the spouting phenomenon (Olazar,
Pressure drop, temperature and air flow rate were continuously
Lopez, Altzibar, Aguado, & Bilbao, 2009). In experiments with a draft
monitored and recorded by a Fluke NetDAQ Logger data acquisition
tube, each experiment lasted 248 h.
system.
Attrition study was carried out using two types of commercial
silica sand (called sands I and II) provided by Sibelco Minerals. The 3. Experimental results
density of both sands is 2600 kg/m3 and their loose bed poros-
ity 0.46, as determined following the Brown and Richards (1970) The evolution of pressure drop with air velocity from the fixed
method. The initial particle size distribution (before attrition tests) to the spouted bed was analyzed in order to determine the mini-
for both types of sand is shown in Fig. 2 (determined by sieving), mum spouting velocity for the different systems studied. As shown
with their Sauter average diameter being around 1.0 mm. in Fig. 3, at first, as air velocity is increased, pressure drop increases
Experiments were carried out using two amounts of sand, 4.5 to a peak value, at which, with further increasing air velocity, a
and 6 kg, which account for bed heights (Ho ) of 24.5 and 27.8 cm, fountain is created and pressure drop decreases to a value that
respectively. The height of the fountain (Hf ) was visually mea- remains approximately constant for a wide range of air veloci-
sured, whereas air velocities referred to the inlet diameter (u0 ), ties. A highly pronounced hysteresis is noted upon reducing the
temperature and pressure drop (P) were continuously recorded air velocity, which is due to the fact that the peak pressure drop is
throughout the whole test. much higher than the operating pressure drop and, furthermore,
In experiments, air flow rate is gradually increased to a value 1.5 the velocity required to break up the bed and open the spout is
times higher than the minimum spouting gas flow rate and is then higher than that corresponding to the peak pressure drop.
 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599 595

Fig. 5. Evolution of (u0 )ms and (u/ums )0 with time, for sand I and an initial inlet air
Fig. 4. Particle size distribution of sand I at the beginning and end of the tests using velocity of 1.35 times (u0 )ms .
air velocities of 1.2 and 1.35 times (u0 )ms .

Furthermore, the fountain height increases with the increase in

the small particle fraction by attrition. In fact, big particles tend
It is widely accepted that the predominant attrition mechanism
to occupy radial positions near the annular–spout interface and so
during fluidization is surface abrasion due to collisions between
describe shorter trajectories than the smaller ones. The smaller par-
parent solids in the bed (Lee et al., 1993). Nevertheless, there
ticles circulate mainly along the outer periphery of the annular zone
are two different attrition mechanisms in a spouted bed: (i) par-
and describe wider cycles. The fountain therefore acts as a high-
ticle impact attrition, which takes place in the fountain region
efficiency distributor, which provides an interesting segregation of
and happens when particles collide against the vessel wall, and
particles by diameter and/or density. Furthermore, as the fountain
(ii) particle–particle surface abrasion, which takes place mainly in
height increases the particle-wall impact surface area and veloc-
the spout region. Particles collide with each other and against the
ity also increase. In addition, the number of particles contained in
layer of annulus particles constituting the spout wall. The extent
a given weight fraction is much higher when these particles are
of particle-wall impact attrition depends on total impact surface
small and, moreover, their ratio of surface area to volume is higher,
area, number of impact cycles, particle velocity, and the particle
which increases the probability of collision.
and vessel material (Chen, Jim Lim, & Grace, 2007). Particle–particle
Fig. 6 shows the experimental data of bed mass evolution for two
surface abrasion depends on particle velocity and particle material.
air inlet velocities. As observed, there is an exponential decrease in
All these parameters change with time. This is due to the presence
the weight of solids in the bed throughout the run. Particles initially
of fewer faults, flaws, or discontinuities affecting particles and to
undergo rapid attrition, which then decreases exponentially, lead-
smaller particle size in the bed. Both mechanisms ensure that sand
ing to a minimum weight value (Wmin ) of steady state in which
particles undergo attrition, increasing the fractional weight of fines
attrition could be considered negligible. This seems to be due to
and reducing the fractional weight of bigger particles.
the fact that the irregular surface of the particles at the beginning
of each experiment abrades easily, but the particles become harder
3.1. Effect of gas velocity to abrade when they are already rounded (Boerefijn et al., 2000; Lin
& Wey, 2003). Wmin depends on air inlet velocity, so that the higher
In order to study the effect of gas velocity on attrition, results the air inlet velocity, the smaller the Wmin . The values of Wmin for
are obtained at two operating velocities, both above the minimum, the two sets carried out in this study are 5555 g and 5300 g for
by using sand I. Fig. 4 shows the variation in the fractional size (u/ums )0 = 1.2 and 1.35, respectively. The higher air flow rate gave
distribution at the beginning and end of the tests carried out at air
velocities of 1.2 and 1.35 times higher than the minimum spouting
velocity. As observed, a reduction in the particle size of the sand is
noted at the end of the tests. In fact, the Sauter diameters measured
at the end of the tests for these velocities are 0.90 mm and 0.94 mm,
respectively. The higher Sauter diameter for the higher velocity
(1.35 times the minimum one) is explained by the higher amount
of elutriated fines for the higher gas flow rate.
Knowledge on the attrition process of the bed material in conical
spouted bed reactors is essential because changes in the fractional
weight distribution involve changes in the hydrodynamic behavior
of the spouted bed reactors. Thus, a decrease in the average parti-
cle diameter throughout the run due to attrition causes minimum
spouting velocity to decrease and, consequently, the operating
(u/ums )0 ratio to increase when a constant air flow rate is used
in the run. Fig. 5 shows the evolution of (u0 )ms and (u/ums )0 with
time using an initial inlet air velocity of 1.35 times the minimum
one which accounts for a velocity of 54 m/s. This effect has already
been observed by Lin and Wey (2005) in fluidized beds. Fig. 6. Experimental data for bed weight evolution (sand I) at two air velocities.
596 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599
Fig. 7. Microphotographs of (a) original sand I and (b) sand after 420 h spouting, (u/ums )0 = 1.2; (c) sand after 420 h spouting, (u/ums )0 = 1.35.
way to more violent collisions between the particles and with the
contactor surfaces. In all the experiments carried out in this work,
the time to reach the minimum value was around 400 h, and it is
proven that the attrition rate increases rapidly by increasing air
velocity.
The rounding off and surface abrasion of silica sand were
observed under a microscope, as illustrated in Fig. 7, showing the
rough and irregular surface of the original sand I (Fig. 7(a)) and the
abraded surface of the sand after 420 h of spouting with inlet air
velocities of 48 and 54 m/s, respectively (Fig. 7(b) and (c)). The sharp
edges gradually disappeared, and the surface became increasingly
polished with time due to collisions. The sizes of the fines elutriated
from the spouted bed contactor and retained in the cyclone range
between 2 and 50 ␮m, as illustrated by SEM microscopy in Fig. 8.
3.2. Effect of sand type
The effects of sand types, I and II, and gas velocities on attrition
are shown in Fig. 9 by observing the evolution of bed weight. The
mass loss is observed for sand type I operating with an air velocity
1.2 times the minimum, and for sand type II operating with veloc-
ities 1.16–1.26 times the minimum. As observed, the mass loss is
much higher with sand II than with sand I, even operating with
lower gas velocities. In fact, when operation is carried out using
the same (u/ums )0 ratio with both sands, the mass loss with sand II
is twice that observed with sand I.
The chemical compositions of both sands were analyzed by X-
ray diffraction, to show the main component in both cases to be
quartz (>99.5%), with feldspar as the main impurity. The differ-
ent behavior between the sands is due to their different textural
properties, which were determined by means of a petrographic
microscopy: sand II is characterized by its sharp edges and, conse-
quently, when it is subjected to impacts in the spouting operation,
Fig. 8. SEM image of fines elutriated from the spouted bed.
breakage of these sharp edges causes faster and more significant
mass loss. Other authors (Lee et al., 1993; Lin & Wey, 2003, 2005)
studying attrition in fluidized beds, also observed the important
effect of particle properties, such as porosity, size, shape, hardness
and so on.
3.3. Attrition in a contactor fitted with a draft tube
Operating with conical spouted beds has certain limitations for
the treatment of fine materials and a crucial parameter that hinders
bed stability in the scaling-up of the process is the ratio between
the inlet diameter and particle diameter. Thus, the inlet diameter
should be up to 20–30 times the average particle diameter in order
to achieve spouting status (Olazar et al., 2011). The use of a draft
tube is the usual solution to this problem (Swasdisevi et al., 2005).
In fact, this internal device is the key for stable operation in large-
scale spouted beds and allows increasing the spoutable bed height
and reducing bed pressure drop (Altzibar et al., 2009; Luo et al.,
2004; Swasdisevi et al., 2004, 2005). Moreover, solid circulation
rate, particle cycle time, gas distribution and so on are governed by
the specifications of the draft tube (Altzibar et al., 2009; Cunha et al.,
2009; Ishikura, Nagashima, & Ide, 2003; Zhao, Yao, & Li, 2006). The
use of a draft tube allows increasing the versatility of the conical
spouted bed and improving the flexibility of the gas–solid contact.
Accordingly, a conical spouted bed provided with a draft tube has
been developed for the biomass pyrolysis process.
Attrition in the conical spouted beds provided with a draft tube
was compared with that observed without it. Runs were carried
out with a draft tube by using a higher velocity than the minimum
for spouting in order to improve the less vigorous contact of these
beds without a tube. Thus, the (u/ums )0 ratio used is 1.35 at 25 ◦ C
and 1.65 at 480 ◦ C. In spite of operating with a higher (u/ums )0 ratio,
the fountain height observed at 480 ◦ C (about 15 cm) is lower than
that observed at 25 ◦ C (around 20 cm). It is noteworthy that this
less vigorous contact at high temperatures reduces sand attrition.
Fig. 9. Comparison of sand mass loss for different types of sand and different gas
velocities.
 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599 597

Fig. 10. Effect of gas velocity and temperature on fountain height.

Thus, at the end of the run (248 h), the sand mass loss at 25 ◦ C
is 180 g, whereas it is only 115 g at 480 ◦ C, even operating with a
higher gas velocity. Certain authors observed the opposite oper-
ating with fluidized beds, i.e., more attrition at high temperatures
(Bemrose & Bridgwater, 1987; Lin & Wey, 2003, 2005). This dif-
ferent behavior between spouted beds and fluidized beds at high
temperatures is explained by the less vigorous gas–solid contact
when temperature is increased in the spouted beds. In order to
improve knowledge on the spouting regime at high temperatures,
a study was conducted on the fountain height and gas–solid con-
tact behavior at different (u/ums )0 ratios and temperatures from
25◦ to 500 ◦ C. Fig. 10 shows the evolution of fountain height as a
function of temperature and (u/ums )0 ratio. As observed, the foun-
tain height is reduced when operating at high temperatures and
this effect seems to be violated if operating over 400 ◦ C. The reduc-
Fig. 11. Bed weight evolution for sand I and air velocities of (a) (u/ums )0 = 1.2 and
tion in the fountain height is related to a change in the gas flow
(b) (u/ums )0 = 1.35. (Points: experimental data; lines: calculated.)
pattern, i.e., a higher amount of gas crosses the bed through the
annulus, which causes a reduction in the gas velocity in the spout
and, consequently, in the acceleration of the particles in this region.
In addition to the lower fountain height at high temperatures,
other particles arising at a high velocity, thus causing severe break-
it is visually observed that solid movement is less vigorous and,
age due to the difference in their velocities. This situation is fully
consequently, the solid circulation rate is lower. Both findings
avoided when working with a draft tube because all the particles
cause a reduction in the strength of particle collisions and there-
enter the spout at the bottom and their relative velocity is almost
fore in the attrition rate at high temperatures. Likewise, Shih et al.
zero. Moreover, in a spouted bed without a draft tube, there are
(2003) related attrition in an internally circulating fluidized bed
violent collisions between the particles in the spout and the layer
to the solid circulation rate. The lower attrition rate at high tem-
of annulus particles constituting the spout wall. These collisions
peratures is related to the change in drag force from low to high
are avoided by operating with a draft tube. These findings reveal
temperatures. Increasing temperature leads to an increase in gas
additional advantages for operating with a draft tube because the
viscosity, whereas at the same time its density decreases. Since at
interest in reducing attrition is not only related to the avoidance
low temperatures (i.e., well below 300 ◦ C) increasing gas viscosity is
of bed material loss but also to the cost of removing fine particles
dominant in comparison with gas density, the drag force increases
downstream of the fluidized or spouted bed (Stein et al., 1998).
(Sanaei et al., 2010).
Before comparing the results obtained at ambient temperature
with and without a draft tube, it should be mentioned that the con-
ical spouted bed without a draft tube is made of plexiglass, whereas 4. Kinetics of sand attrition
the one with the draft tube is made of stainless steel. Consequently
the collisions between the sand and the contactor wall are more Experimental data were fitted to different first-order kinetic
severe in the latter case. Nevertheless, the mass loss with draft tube models reported in the literature, specifically those by Gwyn (1969)
(and higher (u/ums )0 ratio) is less than a quarter of that observed and Lee et al. (1993).
without a draft tube. This difference is due to the solid circulation Gwyn’s equation is the most versatile model describing granu-
pattern when working with a draft tube. Thus, in the operation lar attrition and states that the elutriated weight fraction of sand at
with a non-porous draft tube, the particles are incorporated into room temperature is proportional to time under constant strain
the spout at the bottom of the contactor, whereas in a plain conical rate conditions, Eq. (1). To estimate the weight changes of the
spouted bed the incorporation of solids into the spout takes place sand in the spouted bed using Lee’s formula, Eq. (2), the definition
at all heights throughout the spout. In the latter case, the particles of parameter Ka must be modified by assuming that it depends
that are incorporated into the spout above the bottom collide with exclusively on the excess air velocity over that corresponding to
598 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599
Fig. 12. Bed weight evolution for sands I and II for different air velocities and initial
bed weights of (a) 6 kg and (b) 4.5 kg. (Points: experimental data; lines: calculated.)
minimum spouting velocity at the beginning of the run (u − ums )0 .
The empirical correlation proposed for Ka is:
Ka = k0 e−k1 /u(u−ums )0 ,
with constants k0 and k1 depending on the contactor geometry
and various parameters related to the bed (solid density, porosity,
sphericity, particle mean diameter and bed height).
Scilab algorithms have been developed to fit the experimental
data to the above mentioned models. The objective function (OF)
is defined as:
m m
i=1
(Wcal − Wexp )2n + j=1
(Wcal − Wexp )2m
OF = , (5)
n+m
where Wcal and Wexp are the bed weights calculated with the model
and the experimental values, respectively, and n and m are the
number of measurements in each one of the runs carried out.
In order to determine the model of best fit for the attrition kinet-
ics in a conical spouted bed reactor, the data obtained for sand I
at different velocities were fitted to both models. Fig. 11 shows
the results for two air velocities, 48 m/s (Fig. 11(a)) and 54 m/s
(Fig. 11(b)).
By comparing the experimentally measured bed weights with
those calculated using the equations, it is clear that both models
are acceptable for predicting attrition kinetics in spouted beds, but
the one based on that proposed by Lee et al. (1993) fits better the
trend for long time runs due to its exponential term. Consequently,
the model developed by Lee et al. (1993) was fitted to the experi-
mental results obtained for different sand types, gas velocities and
bed heights to compare experimental and calculated evolutions of
Fig. 13. Comparison of experimental data for bed weight with those calculated
using Lee’s model.
bed weight as shown in Fig. 12(a) for initial bed weight of 6 kg, and
in Fig. 12(b) for 4.5 kg, both showing how faithfully the model pre-
dicts the experimental evolution of bed weight, with the attrition
parameters k0 = 6.77 × 10–3 h–1 and k1 = −0.068 (m2 /s2 ).
Fig. 13 compares experimental data for bed weight with those
calculated using Lee’s model to show the adequacy of the model
proposed. Despite satisfactory prediction of the model it should be
noted that, similar to other attrition models, it is highly dependent
on the geometric factors determining the hydrodynamic perfor-
mance in the contactor. Moreover, the physical properties of the
sand also play a significant role on the attrition process. Conse-
quently, the attrition parameters calculated in this paper should
be extrapolated with care to other experimental conditions.
5. Conclusions
Two attrition kinetic models proposed by Gwyn (1969) and Lee
et al. (1993) were fitted to experimental data obtained with two
(4)
types of silica sand in a spouted bed contactor at room temperature.
Both provide acceptable results but the second one predicts better
results for long time runs due to the exponential term involved
in the equation. The attrition rate constant (Ka ) depends exponen-
tially on the excess of air velocity over that corresponding to the
minimum spouting velocity at zero time. The values of the con-
stants k0 and k1 are 6.77 × 10–3 h–1 and −0.068 m2 /s2 , respectively,
and they depend on contactor geometry and bed material proper-
ties.
As inlet air velocity is raised attrition rate increases until bed
weight reaches a minimum value (Wmin ) at steady state. Further-
more, the higher the inlet air velocity, the lower the final bed
weight. Consequently, in order to maintain a given weight of bed
material in the contactor, and therefore the height of the bed, a
certain amount of material will have to be added.
Particle properties play an important role in the attrition pro-
cess. Especially noteworthy is the effect of textural properties, that
is, sand particles (type II) with sharp edges undergo more severe
particle breakage than the more rounded.
A sharp reduction in attrition has been observed when operating
with a draft tube. The insertion of an internal device avoids the
incorporation of particles into the spout at different heights and,
consequently, avoids violent impacts in this region. Furthermore,
attrition decreases as temperature is increased, which is attributed
to the less vigorous gas–solid contact and the resulting reduction
in particle breakage.
 A.R. Fernández-Akarregui et al. / Particuology 10 (2012) 592–599 599

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