Explain three factors that affect drying of coal fines using the process of fluidisation?

[6]

A batch of coal fines is fluidised in a spouted bed at a pressure drop through the bed of 400
Pa. The column diameter of the bed is 15 cm, while the air inlet diameter is 1.25 cm. The
fines are 2 mm in diameter and their density is 1500 kg/m3. Calculate

The bed height

[2]

Minimum spoutable velocity [3]

A reactor contains catalyst particles cylindrically shaped having a diameter of 1.25 cm with a
height of 2cm. A gas having a density of 1.28 kg/m3 and a viscosity of 1.73 x 10-5 Pa s flows
at a steady rate through the bed which has a voidage of 0.4. If the superficial velocity
established is 0.6 m/s and the pressure drop through the bed is 2.5 kPa. Calculate the bed
height [3]

Calculate the air velocity required to fluidise 50 kg of a polymer consisting of 3 mm diameter

and 700 kg/m3 density. The fluidised medium is air of 1kg/m3 density and 1.6 x10-5 kg/ms
viscosity. Estimate also the pressure drop if the particles are contained in a 40 cm diameter
vessel [3]

Determine the mass fraction associated with each sieve [4]

A particle sampling procedure has yielded the following results

Plot a cumulative and frequency distribution [6]

A 0.1 litre beaker weighs 100g when full of a powder and 10g when empty. The bed voidage
can be taken to be 0.45, the mean particle diameter is 200 micrometers, and the proportion of
each particle occupied by pores is 0.3. What are the bulk density, the particle density, and the
material density? [6]
The following data belong to lab tests undertaken on a calcium carbonate slurry. The filter
area equals 0.045 m² and the solid concentration in the slurry is 24 kg/m 3. Evaluate

a. the mean specific cake resistance [5]

b. the filter medium resistance at a fixed pressure of 50 kPa. [5]

What are the chief behaviour characteristics of the four Geldart powder groups? [4]
5 What differentiates a Geldart Group A powder from a Geldart Group B powder? [4]

With the aid of examples explain why it is important to determine the following
characteristics of particles [12]
  composition,
 size
 shape

Determine the sphericity of a particle which has a surface area of 30 mm2 and
volume 6 mm3 [4]
• Consider a cuboid particle with the following dimensions 6x 3x1 mm. Calculate
the following diameters [10]
(a) Volume diameter
(b) Surface diameter
(c) Surface-volume diameter
(d) Sieve diameter
(e) Projected area diameter
•