EFFECT OF COLUMN DIAMETER ON HYDRODYNAMICS OF

THREE-PHASE FLUIDIZATION OF A HOMOGENEOUS TERNARY

MIXTURE OF IRREGULAR PARTICLES
D. T. K. Dora1, Y. K. Mohanty1, G. K. Roy1
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, GIET, Gunupur-765 022, Rayagada, Odisha, India

Abstract – A series of experiments have been carried out for homogeneous well-mixed
ternary mixtures of five different materials of varying compositions of three different
particle sizes in a three-phase fluidized bed. The hydrodynamic characteristics
determined include the bed pressure drop, bed fluctuation and bed expansion ratios. The
dependence of these quantities on average particle diameter, mass fraction of the fines in
the mixture, initial static bed height, material density and diameter of column has been
discussed. Based on dimensional and statistical analyses, correlations have been
developed with the system parameters, viz., average particle diameter, and initial static
bed height, density of solid, column diameter and superficial velocity of the fluidizing
medium. Experimental values of bed pressure drop, bed fluctuation and bed expansion
ratios have been found to agree well with their respective values calculated by the
developed correlations.
INTRODUCTION
The three-phase fluidized bed is a type of system that can be used to carry out a
variety of multiphase chemical operations/ reactions. In this type of reactor, gas and liquid are
passed through a granular solid material at velocities high enough to suspend the solid in a
fluidized state. Fluidization has always lived up to the expectations, turning into a well
established technology used in chemical, petrochemical and biochemical processing
(Muroyama and Fan, 1958); three-phase reactors are nowadays employed in many areas such
as coal liquefaction, biomass gasification and fermentation, bio-oxidation process for waste
water treatment.
Sulaymon et al., 2010 studied the hydrodynamic characteristics of three-phase
fluidized beds such as gas- holdup, local gas- holdup, bubble rise velocity, minimum
fluidization velocity, superficial gas velocity, the physical and liquid rheological properties
for non-Newtonian fluids. Sivalingam et al., 2009 determined mass transfer characteristics of
co-current three-phase fluidization in terms of mass transfer coefficient and Sherwood
number usingBox-Behnken method. Sivalingamand and Kannadasan, 2009 studied the effect
of fluid rates on the various parameters such as pressure drop, porosity, gas and liquid
holdups in a co-current three-phase fluidized bed with spherical glass bead particles. The
study of Jena et al., 2008 include the hydrodynamic characteristics, viz., the pressure drop,
bed expansion and phase hold-up of a co-current gas–liquid–solid three-phase fluidized bed
using liquid as the continuous phase and gas as the discontinuous phase with spherical glass
beads as the fluidized particles.
Bed expansion for three-phase fluidization has been determined for beds of
commercial Go-Mo extrudate catalysts in n-heptane and nitrogen fluidized bed. Dora et al.
[11] have studied the hydrodynamics characteristics viz., bed pressure drop, bed fluctuation
and bed expansion ratios of ternary mixture of irregular particles in a three-phase fluidized
bed.

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 Available literature deals mostly with the study of hydrodynamic behavior of single
component or binary mixtures in three-phase fluidized bed. While very little work is available
for multi-component mixtures,practically no work has been reported on the effect of aspect
ratio (Dc/Hs) on the hydrodynamics of three-phase fluidized bed. The objective of the present
work is to study the effect of system parameters viz.the superficial liquid velocity, average
particle diameter (mixture composition), average particle density, initial static bed height and
the diameter of column. The experimental data for pressure drop, fluctuation and expansion
ratios have been correlated with the system parameters by the dimensional as well as the
statistical analysis approaches. The values obtained from the correlation have been compared
with the experimental ones.
2.0 Material and Methods
The details of
experimental set-up used in the
present investigation have been
presented elsewhere [11].
Three closely-sized samples of
dolomite were used for the
investigation. For ternary
mixtures, fairly good mixing
has been achieved by coning
and quartering method as done
in experimental practice and
classification has been avoided
since the ratio of the particle-
sizes of two successive
fractions in the mixture was kept below 1.3. The scope of the experiments has been presented
in Table 1. A weighed quantity of the mixture was poured into the fluidized column. Prior to
recording any data the charge was vigorously fluidized with water at a velocity at which
entrainment was not observed. After a certain time, the water flow was suddenly stopped to
obtain a mixed packed bed and then the data were collected. Then the velocity of the water
was increased slowly allowing sufficient time to reach a steady state. The rotameter and
manometer readings were noted for each increment in flow rate from which the values of the
superficial liquid velocity and pressure drop were calculated. The velocity, at which the
pressure drop was maximum, was taken as the minimum fluidization velocity. Then air was
passed through the bed as a dispersed phase by keeping the water velocity at minimum
fluidization condition. The velocity of the air was increased slowly allowing sufficient time to
reach a steady state. The rotameter and manometer readings were noted for each increment in
flow rate from which the values of the superficial gas velocity and pressure drop were
calculated. The above procedure was repeated for different values of initial static bed height,
mixture composition, column diameter and density of bed material( i.e. selecting different
materials).

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3.0 Results and Discussion

3.1 Fluidized bed Pressure drop

Fig. 1.shows the variation of bed pressure

drop with superficial air velocity for different
column diameter with an initial static bed height
of 0.1m and a mixture of 20:50:30. In this case,
minimum fluidization condition in the bed was
achieved by the liquid thereafter the air was
slowly admitted to the bed. With an increase in
air velocity from 5.09 to 15.28 m/sec, the bed
pressure drop decreased from 1001.46 to 161.15
N/m2. This is due to the fact that as the air
velocity increases, the gas hold up increases
which in turn decreases the density of the mixture.
The decreased density increases the buoyancy
force, thus decreasing the form drag and hence
the bed pressure drop. But at a certain velocity of

the air the bed pressure drop increases due

to downward thrust imparted by the air
bubble which is due to the fact that more
particles are attached to the air bubble as its
size grows bigger. It has also observed
from Fig. 1. that with increase in column
diameter, the pressure drop in the bed
increases.

3.2 Bed fluctuation ratio

The fluctuation ratio (r) is defined

as the ratio of the highest to the lowest bed
heights of the fluidized bed in expansion,
i.e. r = h2/h1. The variation of bed
fluctuation ratio with superficial air
velocity for dolomite of initial static bed
height of 0.1m and a mixture of 20:50:30 is
shown in Fig. 2. It is observed that with
decrease in column diameter, the bed fluctuation ratio (r) decreases. This is due to the fact
that, the vertical lift of the particles in the upper segment of the bed for both the cases is
reduced to a considerable extent thereby reducing the fluctuation of the top of the expanded
bed surface and consequently the fluctuation ratio.

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3.3 Bed expansion ratio
The expansion ratio (R) is defined as the ratio of average of the highest and the lowest
bed heights to the initial static bed height for a particular gas flow rate, i.e., R = (h1 + h2) /
2Hs. The variation of bed expansion ratio with superficial air velocity for different column
diameter with an initial static bed height of 0.1 m and mixture of 20:50:30 is shown in Fig. 3.
It is clear from Fig. 3 that with increase in column diameter the expansion ratio decreases.
The reason is similar to that explained above for the reduction of the bed fluctuation ratio in
these two cases.

3.4 Development of correlations for pressure drop, fluctuation and expansion ratio by
Dimensional analysis
The dimensionless fluidized
bed pressure drop is found to be
dependent on four dimensionless
groups. Value of ∆Pmf used in the
developed correlations has been
calculated from the following
equation developed from author’s
data (correlation coefficients are
greater than 0.934) is represented as
Eq. 4. The fluidized bed pressure
drop, bed fluctuation and expansion
ratios are found to depend on the
following five dimensionless groups.
The values of the parameter and
responses for developing the
correlations are given in table 2 and
the correlations are given below.

1.86
 
0.564 1.35
 Hs   Dc 
Pmf  82.69  s      (4)
 
 f   Dc   Hs 

0.1 0.05
Pf  Gf   s 
0.032 0.13 0.124
 Hs   D pav   Dc 
 0.689           (5)
Pmf G   
 mf   DC   C 
D  f   Hs 
0.33 0.06 1.86 0.12 0.49
 Gf   Hs   D pav   s   Dc 
r  0.003           (6)
G   
 mf   DC   DC   f   Hs 
0.5 0.78 2.34 0.17
 Gf   Hs   s 
0.41
 D pav   Dc 
R  0.002           (7 )
G   D   D   
 mf   C   C   f   Hs 
3.5 Development of regression model equation
CCD has been used to develop a correlation between the above five variables and the three
responses. According to the sequential model sum of squares, the models have been selected
on the basis of the highest order polynomials where the additional terms are significant and
the models are not aliased. The quadratic model has been selected as suggested by the

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software. Experiments were planned to obtain a quadratic model consisting of 25 trials plus a
star configuration (α = ±2) and their replicates at the center point. The following equations
have been obtained for dimensionless pressure drop, fluctuation and expansion ratios.
Pf
 0.566  0.011 A  0.003 B  0.001C  0.008 D
Pmf
 0.012 E  0.001 A 2  0.001D 2  9.12  10 4 E 2 (8)
r  1.251  0.08 A  0.013 B  0.038C  0.046 D  0.107 E  0.006 AE  0.003CE  0.003 DE
 0.005 A2  0.008 D 2  0.014 E 2 (9)

R  1.534  0.15 A  0.23B  0.06C  0.08 D  0.11E  0.022 AB  0.007 AD  0.01AE

 0.008 BC  0.01BD  0.01BE  0.008 A2  0.03B 2  0.015 D 2  0.013 E 2 (10)
Conclusion
In this study, the effect of column diameter hae een studied for three-phase ternary mixture of
dolomite. Simultaneously the study of both dimensional analysis and Response Surface
Methodology (RSM) based CCD and Quadratic Programming (QP) are used to model the
influence of five process parameters on the three responses. Mathematical model equations
are derived for the three responses by using sets of experimental data. Predicted values
obtained using the model equations were found to be in very good agreement with the
experimental values. Hence, the developed correlations can be used for the design of three-
phase fluidized bed system with homogeneous ternary mixtures of irregular particles as bed
materials within the ranges of the operating parameters investigated.
Nomenclature
Dc: diameter of column (m)
h1: minimum height of the bed during fluidization (m)
h2: maximum height of the bed during fluidization (m)
Hs: initial static bed height (m)
Gf: flow rate of fluid at fluidization condition (m3/hr)
Gmf: flow rate of fluid at minimum fluidization condition (m3/hr)
r: bed fluctuation ratio
R: bed expansion ratio
Dpav: average particle diameter of ternary mixture (m)
ΔPmf: pressure drop through the particle bed at minimum fluidization condition (N/m2)
ΔPf: pressure drop through the bed during fluidized (N/m2)
Greek letters:
ρf: fluid density (Kg/m3)
ρs: solid density (kg/m3)
α: cone angle
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