Fluidized Bed Scale-Up for Sustainability Challenges. 1. Tomorrow’s Tools

Review article, 2024

The scaling up of fluidized beds has been purposefully pursued for more than 100 years. Yet, over that time, scale-up tools have not significantly changed. Data analysis is typically a standard analysis of variances statistical exercise, perhaps reinforced with a design of experimental procedure. Flowsheeting and equipment design are based on institutional knowledge, albeit graphical user interface-based process flow models make that job more manageable. Advanced models such as computational fluid dynamics are used but often as a supplement and not a primary driver. As a result, the scale-up process for a fluidized bed can take more than 10 years. Fluidized beds remain at the forefront of the present time-critical sustainability challenges, e.g., carbon capture by particulate sorbents, methane-to-hydrogen, plastic-to-chemicals, etc. In view of the exigency toward net zero, today’s scale-up efforts need to be accelerated, leveraging the advanced new tools that have become readily available. The problem is that such tools are often neglected, inadequately implemented, ineffectively resourced, and/or poorly understood. This motivated the current effort, which is targeted at reviewing how scale-up tools have evolved over the years and the promising new tools, addressing some of the barriers of these tools in the design and scale-up of fluidized beds, as well as contemplating what can be done to circumvent these barriers. As a follow up, a companion part 2 ( Cocco, R. A. ; Chew, J. W. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., submitted for publication) proposes a new scale-up path leveraging the advanced tools to achieve timely implementation of the new green fluidized bed processes.