Experimental evaluation of the lateral mixing of fuel in a fluidized bed with cross-flow of solids - influence of tube banks

Paper in proceeding, 2014

This work investigates the lateral fuel mixing in fluidized beds with a crossflow of solids by means of experiments in a fluid-dynamically downscaled unit of the Chalmers indirect biomass gasifier. Fuel lateral mixing is expressed as the combined effect of fuel dispersion and drag from the solids cross flow, and the work evaluates quantitatively these two effects at two different fluidization velocities. In addition, the work investigates the influence of a bank of horizontal tubes. It is found that there is a significant increase in both lateral fuel dispersion and drag of the fuel particles with fluidization velocity. Furthermore, the two mechanisms for lateral fuel mixing are drastically lowered by the insertion of the tube bank.