Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362

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Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/CJChE

Review

Developments in the understanding of gassolid contact efciency

in the circulating uidized bed riser reactor: A review
Chengxiu Wang 1, Jesse Zhu 1,2,
1
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
2
Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B9, Canada

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

Article history: In the last several decades, circulating uidized bed reactors have been studied in many aspects including
Received 14 March 2015 hydrodynamics, heat and mass transfer and gassolid two phase contacting. However, despite the abundance
Received in revised form 9 June 2015 of review papers on hydrodynamics, there is no summary paper on gassolid contact efciency to date, especially
Accepted 10 June 2015
on high density circulating uidized beds (CFBs). This paper gives an introduction to, and a review of the
Available online 5 July 2015
measurement of contact efciency in circulating uidized bed riser. Firstly, the popular testing method of contact
Keywords:
efciency including the method of heating transfer experiment and hot model reaction are discussed, then
Circulating uidized bed previous published papers are reviewed based on the discussed methods. Some key results of the experimental
Riser work are described and discussed. Gassolid contact efciency is affected by the operating conditions as well as
High density the particle size distribution. The result of the contact efciency shows that the CFB riser is far away from an ideal
Gassolid contacting plug ow reactor due to the characteristics of hydrodynamics in the riser. Lacunae in the available literature have
Heat transfer been delineated and recommendations have been made for further work.
Ozone decomposition 2015 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction distinctive differences in the operating conditions of these two industrial

processes. Some key differences are listed in Table 1. It shows that typical
Fluidization is a process which involves the ow of solid particles in FCC units operate at a gas velocity ranging from 6 to 28 ms1 and a solid
contact with liquid, gas, or both gasliquid ow. Regimes for gassolid circulation rate (Gs) of 4001200 kgm2s1, while typical CFBC
uidization may include particulate, bubbling, slugging (abnormal reactors operate at lower gas velocity from 5 to 9 ms1 and much
state), turbulent, fast uidization and pneumatic transport [1,2]. In a lower Gs from 10 to 100 kgm2s1, resulting in much lower solid hold-
fast uidized bed, solids must be continuously fed into the bed (the up in CFBC reactors. Moreover, bed geometry, solid inventory and solid
riser) at or near the bottom and the entrained solids by the high velocity feeding device are also signicantly different between FCC and CFBC.
gas ow are captured at the top and sent back to the bottom of the riser
through a recirculation system outside of the riser to maintain an Table 1
uninterrupted solid circulation. Therefore, the fast uidization and Typical operating conditions of FCC and CFBC units [7]
the corresponding fast uidized bed was referred to as continuous Operating conditions FCC CFBC
uidization and circulating uidized bed, respectively [3,4]. Benets
Particle density/kgm3 11001700 18002600
of circulating uidized bed reactors include signicantly reduced gas Particle mean size/mm 0.040.08 0.10.3
and solid backmixing, improved contact efciency, and continuous supercial gas velocity/ms1 628 59
process coupled with higher product capability [35]. Net solid ux/kgm2s1 4001200 10100
Industrial applications of circulating uidized beds (CFBs) started in Solid holdup 3%15% b1%
Average solid residence time/s 24 24
the 1950s [6], and rapidly expanded in the last ve decades. It is clear
Cross-section geometry Circular Rectangular or square
to see that two main waves of tremendous developments of CFBs Reactor diameter/ m 0.71.5 48 equivalent
associated with uid catalytic cracking (FCC) and circulating uidized Height to diameter ratio N20 b510
bed combustion (CFBC). As discussed by Zhu and Bi [7], there are many Solid inventory High Low
Solid exit structure Smooth Abrupt
Solid feeding device Mechanical valves Non-mechanical valves
Supported by the Scientic Research Funds from China University of Petroleum
(Beijing) (No. 2462014YJRC018), and also partially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 21506253 and No. 91534204).
In reviewing the research history, the earlier reported studies
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 519 661 3807; fax: +1 519 850 2441. throughout the 1970s to early 1990s almost entirely focused on
E-mail address: jzhu@uwo.ca (J. Zhu). hydrodynamics of CFBs operating with low solid circulation rate of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2015.07.004
1004-9541/ 2015 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.
54 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362
100 kgm2s1 concentrating on operating conditions used for CFB
coal combustion while little research was published for the FCC riser
except for an earlier report from Shell [8]. Previous experiments have
clearly demonstrated that a CFB reactor with low solid ux is hydrody-
namically characterized by an extremely non-uniform ow structure,
with a dense bottom region and dilute upper region in the axial direction
[9,10] and a core-annulus ow structure in the radial direction [2,11].
This non-uniform ow structure and the relatively dilute solid concentra-
tion (usually less than 10%) result in many disadvantages, such as serious
gas by-passing through the core dilute region and extensive backmixing
of solids in the wall region, consequently resulting in lower gross gas
solid contact efciency and poor selectivity of chemical reactions [12,
13]. Also, there are a reduction in heat transfer coefcients between
heat transfer surfaces and suspension and somewhat greater temperature
gradient than in dense beds [4,11]. These limitations as suggested by the
previous researchers greatly affect the application of CFBs' to processes
with slow reaction rates or requiring high heat transfer rates.
To raise the attention of the CFB working community, Bi and Zhu
[14] proposed the concept of HDCFB/HFCFB (high density/ux circulat-
ing uidized bed) in contrast to LDCFB/LFCFB (low density/ux circulat-
ing uidized bed). It was pointed out that although many commercial
CFB setups are operating under high density conditions such as FCC,
majority of the fundamental studies had been carried out in relatively
low density circulating uidized beds (LDCFB) and there had been little
reported fundamental effort on the high density circulating uidized
bed (HDCFB). Such high density includes both high ux and high hold-
up with the criterion of solid circulation rate reaching 200 kgm2s1
and the average solid holdup of 10% as the boundary to demarcate the
two conditions [15,16].
Studies on HDCFB were rst carried out in the late 1990s. Recently,
high density circulating uidized beds have become one of the focal
points in the eld of CFB systems. [10,1618] Numerous studies under
high solid ux have shown that the hydrodynamics are quite different
in comparison with low ux and low density CFB risers operated with
Gs b 200 kgm2s1 [15,1925]. Fig. 1 shows a typical ow structure
in high density circulating uidized bed. Some key ndings include:
(1) In the axial direction, the average solid holdup for HDCFB is up to
10%30% with the densest solid holdup up to almost 40% at the
bottom section of the riser, much higher than LDCFB with solid
holdup usually lower than 1% in the developed region. In addi-
tion, a fairly uniform axial proles of solid holdup is achieved
across the whole bed under extremely high solid circulation
rate of 1000 kgm2s1, at higher solid holdup.
(2) In the radial direction, local solid concentration under HDCFB is
also much higher than that under LDCFB. As shown in Fig. 1,
the radial solid distribution becomes steeper with higher ux.
Work by other researchers [27] also showed that the downow
of particles in the wall region almost disappeared under high
density conditions leading to a reduction of axial gas dispersion
under HDCFB. Based on these current studies, it can be concluded
that in HDCFB reactors, more favorite hydrodynamics with high
solid ow rates and more uniform dense suspension along the
axial direction may result in improved reactor performance
with better gassolid contacting efciency and higher conversion
per unit volume and will be very useful for applications requiring
higher solid/gas feed ratios and uniform solids and gas residence
time, and processes where high gassolid contacting efciency is
crucial [28,29]. The contact efciency between gas and solids is
closely related to the hydrodynamics and mass and heat transfer
behaviors in the CFB reactor, and it has a signicant inuence on
the overall system performance.
Until now, most of the research concentrate on hydrodynamics as
summarized by several authors. While several hundreds of papers
have been published on the hydrodynamics of uidized beds, fewer
results (all summarized in Table 2) have been reported on the gas
solid contacting. The contact efciency of gassolid in a circulating uid-
ized bed is not well understood, partially due to measurement difcul-
ties and the lack of a rigorous denition for the contact efciency. A
clear understanding of the gassolid contacting will help in the design
of CFB reactors. This paper attempts to present efforts made in develop-
ing fundamental understanding of gassolid contact efciency in CFB
reactors, especially in HDCFB reactors.
2. Experimental Testing Methods
In a general sense, contact efciency is related to gas bypassing due
to the nonuniform structure especially the nonuniform ow structure in
the radial direction in both LDCFB and HDCFB reactors. As described by
Dry et al. [12], in a CFB reactor, not all the gas fed into the reactor would
come into close contact with the solids: some of the reactant gas would
experience intimate contact with the dispersed particles, and some may
emerge at the outlet of the reactor without having made substantial
contact with any solids at all. Of the gas which does come into close con-
tact with the solids, a fraction would be converted and the rest would
exhaust unchanged. The contact efciency then can be dened based
on the conversion of a special species under carefully chosen conditions.
Gas-phase conversion measured across the reactor would reect a com-
bination of hydrodynamic and reaction behaviors. The technique devel-
oped so far for measuring the contact efciency can be divided into two
categories: the indirect method using gassolid heat transfer testing
and the direct method using catalytic ozone decomposition as a model
reaction, as shown in Table 2.
The former is a reasonable way because heat transfer is largely
controlled by the gas and solid contacting behavior. The results of heat
transfer between gas and solids can be used to characterize the gas
solid contacting efciency and the mass transfer performance. There-
fore, earlier studies on contact efciency were almost all conducted
using heat loss from a pulse of hot gas [12,34,38]. Typical apparatus
and the testing probe is schematized in Fig. 2 and detailed information
can be found in the related papers.
The latter is more attractive because it employs real chemical reac-
tion to evaluate the reactant conversion in CFBs and the chemical reac-
tion itself can supply direct information on reactor performance. A
carefully chosen chemical reaction is the key success for this method.
Because of its simplicity in reaction kinetics (very close to rst-order
reaction), negligible heat effect of reaction due to the low concentrations
involved, and the availability of a simple and accurate measurement
method, a heterogeneous catalytic reactionozone decomposition cata-
lyzed by ferric oxidewas very often employed as a model reaction to
investigate reaction coupled with mass transfer in uidized bed reactors
[30,36]. A typical ozone generation and measurement system is shown in
Fig. 3. The underlying theory was elaborated by Ouyang et al. [45] and
Li et al. [41].
3. Contact Efciency by Heat Transfer Measurement Method
3.1. Denition of gassolid contact efciency
For the heat transfer method, gas temperatures were usually mea-
sured by a rapid-response thermocouple. Assuming that the heat loss to
the CFB wall can be negligible, an energy balance across a given section
of the reactor gives:
Heat loss from the gas stream Heat transferred to the solids phase 1



cpg g U g A T g;1 T g;2 hgs a T g T p AZ 2
where cpg is the specic heat of gas, g is the gas density, A is the cross-
section area of the bed, Tg,1 is the gas temperature at the top of a given
riser and Tg,2 is the gas temperature at the bottom of a given bed section,
 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362 55

0.6
Ug7-Gs100 Ug7-Gs100
Ug7-Gs400 Ug7-Gs400 z=7.78m 0.5
Ug7-Gs700
Ug7-Gs700
10 Ug9-Gs1000 0.4
Ug9-Gs1000

0.3

0.2

0.1
8
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

0.6

z=4.78m 0.5

Solids holdup, [-]

6 0.4
Height/m

0.3

0.2

0.1
4
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

0.6

z=1.94m 0.5

2 0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
0 0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Cross-sectional mean solids holdup Normalized radial position

Fig. 1. Characteristics of ow structure at extremely high ux/density conditions [26].

hgs is the heat transfer coefcient between gas and solids, is the surface
to volume ratio of a particle, T g is the average gas temperature, T p is the
average solid temperature and Z is the height of a given bed section.
Rearranging the above equation gives:
The left hand side of the above equation is then the driving force
for interfacial heat transfer. Considering the analogy between heat and
mass transfer, the same driving force can also be used to characterize
gassolid mixing. Based on the above, the contact efciency between
the gas and solids is dened as:

T g;1 T g;2 hgs a T g;1 T g;2

Z: 3 Egs  100%: 4
T g T p cpg g U g T g T p

Table 2
Facility description for contact efciency experiments

Authors Testing method Reactor type Diameter and height/m p /kgm3 Particle size /m Ug /ms1 Gs /kgm2s1

Fryer [30] Ozone reaction Bubbling bed 0.229 2 2650 117 0.0240.017
Dry et al. [12] Heat transfer Riser 0.09 7.2 1370 71 2.08.0 36232
Grace [31] Ozone reaction Bubbling and turbulent bed 0.1 2.6 13841591 60 0.061.8
Jiang et al. [32] Ozone reaction Riser with bafe ring 0.102 6.32 1500 89 1.52.5 5.128.9
Bi et al. [33] Ozone reaction Riser 0.102 6.32 1153 58 1.52.3 021
Dry [34] Heat transfer Riser 0.09 7.2 1370 71 2.08.0 36232
Pagliolico [35] Ozone reaction Riser 0.05 4.5 2970 82 3.88.8 20.4102
Ouyang et al. [36] Ozone reaction Riser 0.254 10.9 1380 65 2.08.3 54200
Schoenfelder et al. [37] Ozone reaction Riser 0.4 15.6 1420 50 2.44.5 945
Zhu et al. [38] Heat transfer Downer 0.1 9.3 1500 67 5.29.3 58180
Bolland [39] Ozone reaction Riser 0.411 8.5 3320 117 5.67.2 3153
Fan et al. [40] Ozone reaction Downer 0.09 15 1747 62 2.23.7 8.428.8
Li et al. [41] Ozone reaction Downer 0.076 10.2 1370 60 1.02.0 50150
Li et al. [42] Ozone reaction Riser 0.076 10.2 1370 60 1.02.0 50150
Wang et al. [43] Ozone reaction Riser 0.076 10.2 1780 68 1.09.0 100700
Wang et al. [44] Ozone reaction Downer 0.076 10.2 1780 68 5.09.0 100800
56 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362

Particle
Gas sample
Gas

Heat transfer To cyclone

signal

Thermocouple
CFB junction
Filter
membrane
Downcomer
Electrically
heated bomb

Gas warming
system

Heat transfer
Gas signal

Fig. 2. Schematic of the designs of the heat transfer measurement technique [12].

aggregated particles are likely to provide less effective surface area to

Sampling the main reactant gas stream. Proles of the contact efciency v.s.
probe PC solid holdup are shown in Fig. 4(b) and the conclusions are generally
Ozone the same for Fig. 4(a), as might be anticipated. To investigate the
Wire analyzer Exhaust
mesh particle-size/aggregation effects on the reactor performance, Dry et al.
[34] extended their research to study the effect of particle size on gas
Purge Ozone
sample solid contact in CFBs using heat transfer measurement.
gas Fig. 5 shows the contact efciency for three kinds of solid particles.
Filter Room air
3-way As noted in this gure, the magnitude of these efciencies is low,
valve 0.03%3%. In all cases, contact efciency decreases as solid holdup
Particle discharge (if any) increases. Contact efciency is also lower at lower supercial gas veloc-
ity. This is reasonable in terms of lower turbulence magnitudes permit-
CFB Ozone sampling and testing ting higher degrees of aggregate formation and hence greater levels of
shielding. Compared to the results with different particle size distribu-
tions, the overall trend is clear: the coarser the solids the more
surface-efcient it becomes through less participation in aggregated
cluster formation. Dry et al. [34] mentioned that this is analogous to
Ozone bubbling beds showing improved gassolid contact as coarser particles
generator O2 are used the permeability of the dense phase increases as particle size
increases, leading to more slow bubbles and higher contact efciency
Main air
(above a certain particle size limit). In the CFB case it appears that this
O3
0.20 0.20
Ozone (a) (b)
generation

0.15 0.15
Contact efficiency/%

Contact efficiency/%

Fig. 3. Schematic of the designs of the ozone decomposition measurement [41,42].

0.10 0.10
3.2. Key results of contact efciency by heat transfer measurements
6 m.s
-1

-1
One of the two plenary lectures on the heat transfer measurement 6 m. s
were delivered by Dry et al. [12,34]. The most striking results of their 0.05 0.05
-1
4 m.s
4 m. s
-1
work conducted in a CFB riser of 0.09 mm i.d. with 7.2 m high are
-1
shown in Fig. 4. 2 m.s
2 m. s
-1

The magnitude of the contact efciency is from 0.01% to 0.18%. The 0.00 0.00
trends in Fig. 4(a) with gas velocity and solid circulation rate suggest 0 50 100 150 200 250 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12
-2 -1
that an increase in solid holdup is associated with a less contact efcien- Solids circulation rate/kg.m .s Solids holdup
cy. This seems reasonable since the effects of particle aggregation would
be expected to strengthen as solid circulation rate increases and the Fig. 4. Typical results of contact efciency in the CFB riser [12].
 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362 57

3.0 0.6 0.20

4 m.s-1 4 m.s-1 2 m.s-1
(a) (b) (c)
6 m.s-1 6 m.s-1 4 m.s-1
2.5 0.5
8 m.s-1 6 m.s-1
140 micron sand 0.15

Contact efficiency/%
2.0 275 micron sand 0.4
71 micron FCC
particles
1.5 0.3 0.10

1.0 0.2
0.05
0.5 0.1

0.0 0.0 0.00

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.00 0.05 0.10
Solids holdup

Fig. 5. Effects of particle size on gassolid contact efciency [34].

trend is mirrored, with coarser particles leading to more permeable of inuences of the gas and solid mixing within the entrance acceleration
clusters and (hence) greater surface efciency. zone. In addition, internally recycling catalyst and the externally circulat-
ing catalyst stream merge with uidization gas stream at the bottom
4. Contact Efciency by Catalytic Ozone Decomposition Reaction dense region and result in torrent gassolid ow. This indicates that a
dense layer of solids may happen near the wall forming an annulus-
As mentioned in Section 2, the catalytic decomposition of ozone in a core pattern.
CFB reactor can directly provide information on reactor performance
and therefore, recent research on gassolid contacting and mixing
4.2. Radial distribution of ozone concentration
usually employs this hot-model method. Compared to the indirect
heat transfer measurement discussed above, using ozone decomposition
Typical experimental results are shown in Fig. 7, which depicts the
reaction can easily map a detailed distribution of ozone concentration at
radial ozone concentrations proles at three different axial positions
each position, both axially and radially in the CFB reactor.
presented in two papers, i.e., Ouyang et al. [36] and Schoenfelder et al.
[37].
4.1. Axial distribution of ozone concentration
1.0 1.0
Ouyang et al. [36] comprehensively investigated the ozone decom-
position in a CFB riser and obtained the axial ozone concentration pro-
Dimensionless ozone reaction

0.8 0.8
les at different radial positions under different operating conditions
as shown in Fig. 6. Ozone concentrations in all gures are presented in
the form of dimensionless concentration which is dened by dividing 0.6 0.6
the actual ozone concentration by initial concentration at the riser inlet.
Ug = 2.27 m.s
-1
Ug = 2.5 m.s
-1

0.4 0.4
G = 54.1 kg.m .s
-2 -1
G = 11 kg m .s
. -2 -1
1.0 s s
r/R = 0.0
Dimensionless concentration

r/R = 0.3 z= 1.5 m z= 1.1 m

r/R = 0.5 0.2 0.2
0.8 z= 5.5 m z= 6.1 m
r/R = 0.7 z= 10.0 m z= 13.1 m
r/R = 0.9
r/R = 1.0 0.0 0.0
0.6 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Normalized radial position Normalized radial position
0.4
Fig. 7. Typical radial prole of ozone concentration in the CFB rise [36,37].

0.2 U = 3.9 m.s-1

0.0
0 2
Fig. 6. Typical axial prole of ozone concentration in the CFB riser [36].
The data suggest that there exists a strong axial gas and solid mixing
ow in the riser reactor from atness of the axial ozone concentration
prole in the fully developed region. They also show that the ozone
concentrations at all radial positions increase to a maximum because
As shown in the gure, ozone concentration is different at different
Gs = 34 kg.m-2.s-1
radial positions: the concentration in the central region is much higher
than that in the near wall region. The suggested reason for such a radial
4 6 8 10 concentration prole in the CFB riser is that in the wall region higher
Height/m solid holdup results in higher reaction rates as compared to those in
the dilute core region [46]. The ozone concentration difference between
the core and wall regions decreases with an increase in the axial
position, which corresponds to a decrease in solid holdup. These data
indicate that the trend of the radial ozone concentration proles is
essentially dominated by the ow structure, which is represented by
the axial and radial solid holdup proles, showing strong correlation
between ow structure and local conversion.
58
From the above discussion, it is clear to see that the distribution of
ozone concentration is nonuniform in the radial distribution resulting
from the nonuniform solid ow across the cross-section of the CFB
system. To homogenize radial variations and improve gassolid inter-
phase contact, Jiang et al. [32] installed the effect of bafes, to study
their effect on the radial ozone concentration prole, with introducing
four ring-type bafes located at 1.08, 2.39, 3.60, 4.82 m above the
distributor in their 0.102 m diameter and 6.32 m high CFB riser. Radial
ozone concentration proles inside the riser are shown in Fig. 8. When
compared with those without bafes, for a similar gas velocity and
solid circulation rate, the radial ozone concentration proles at all ve
axial locations are atter. For a reactor system with bafes, the lateral
mixing of gas and the downward ow of solids in the wall region
enhances the solid exchange between the wall region and the core
region, thus reducing the recirculation of gas reactant, which is either
adsorbed on the catalyst or entrained in clusters. Therefore, the contact
between the reactant and catalyst solids can be enhanced. Whereas, in a
system without bafes, solid holdups are higher in the wall region and
lower in the center region, giving parabolic ozone concentration proles
at different axial heights, which persist over the entire height of the riser
[32].
1.0
With baffles
Dimensionless ozone concentration
0.8
0.6
Ug = 2.5 m.s
-1
Gs = 28.9 kg.m .s
-2 -1
0.4
z= 0.5 m
z= 1.0 m
0.2 z= 2.0 m
z= 4.0 m
z= 6.0 m
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Normalized radial position
Fig. 8. Effects of bafes on ozone concentration in the CFB riser [32].
4.3. Ozone distribution proles in the HDCFB riser
The above section shows the ozone distribution in CFBs most of which
were obtained in LDCFB with low solid ux of less than 200 kgm2s1.
To investigate the ozone decomposition in HDCFB reactor, Zhu's research
group put much effort to systematically carry out experiments to examine
the gassolid mixing and contacting in HDCFB reactors [29,43,44,4749].
Most recently, Wang et al. [43,44,47] completed a research with high solid
circulation rate up to 800 kgm2s1.
The axial ozone concentration proles with the corresponding solid
holdup proles under different operating conditions in the riser are
shown in Fig. 9. It is shown that the ozone concentration always
decreases with increasing distance from the distributor. For all the oper-
ating conditions, the axial distribution proles of the ozone concentra-
tion have a similar trend: except for the entrance region of the column
where the ozone concentration decreases quickly, the ozone concentra-
tions change more gradually and even have almost no change along the
axial elevations.
In addition, there is a clear difference in the axial distributions of
ozone concentration between low and high solid concentrations.
When Gs is low (Gs = 100 kgm2s1), the axial proles has a more
uniform axial distribution with a very short entrance-section (less
than 2 m) where the ozone concentration drops sharply. Above this
region, the ozone concentration remains relatively constant. When Gs
is higher than 200 kgm 2s 1, the dramatic decrease of ozone
C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362
concentration covers much longer length which can be up to 6 m for
Gs of 800 kgm2s1, leading to higher ozone conversion. The obvious
reason is that the average solid holdup is much higher for high solid ux
conditions than that for low solid ux cases. Under high solid concen-
tration conditions, there would be more opportunity of contacting
between gas and solids so that the reactant can be converted as much
as possible. It can also be seen that low supercial gas velocities and/or
high solid circulation rates lead to low ozone concentration (i.e. high
ozone conversion) and vice versa which is similar to the results reported
by Jiang et al. [32] in the LDCFB riser discussed in the above sections.
Typical radial distribution proles of the ozone concentration at
different axial positions under U g of 7 ms 1 and G s of 300 and
700 kgm 2s 1 in the riser column are shown in Fig. 10.
The gure shows that the distribution of the ozone concentration is
not uniform along the radial direction, consistent with those proles in
Fig. 7 obtained in LDCFB reactors. The ozone concentration decreases
with an increase in solid circulation rate for the same supercial gas
velocity of 7 ms1. This is due to the solid holdups increase with
increasing solid circulation rate. Under the high density operating condi-
tions, the total gassolid contacting area for reaction and mass transfer
between gas and solids will also increase leading to signicant rise of
the ozone conversion. Therefore, ozone concentration becomes much
1.0 lower as solid circulation rate increases. It is also to see that the radial
Without baffles distribution of the ozone concentration becomes more uniform with
reduced Gs due to the increased radial uniformity of the solid ow
0.8
structure.
The conversion of ozone reactant reects the combined effects of
0.6 hydrodynamics and the chemical reaction itself. To gain better under-
standing of the CFB reactor performance, Wang et al. [43] studied the
dependence of the overall conversion on the solid holdup and the
0.4 Ug = 2.1 m.s
-1
dimensionless kinetic rate constant (i.e. the Damkhler number
Gs = 20.8 kg.m .s
-2 -1
z= 0.5 m kr = krs(1 s)H/Ug).
0.2
z= 1.0 m It is clear from Fig. 11 that the conversion of ozone increases with the
z= 2.0 m
solid holdup, as has been conrmed by other researchers [12,32,42].
z= 4.0 m
z= 6.0 m There appears to be a linear relationship between total ozone conver-
0.0 sion and mean solid holdup as shown in Fig. 11. The inuence of solid
1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
holdup on ozone conversion is nearly the same for Ug = 5 ms1 and
Normalized radial position
7 ms1 with almost the same slope of the tting lines. On the other
hand, effects of solid holdup on ozone conversion is more signicant
under high supercial gas velocity (Ug = 9 ms1). Higher solid holdup
under higher supercial gas velocity plays a signicant role in overall
conversion. The reason is that at low supercial gas velocity, the
increase of solid holdup probably leads to the increase of formation of
clusters. The gassolid mass transfer within the clusters is not as good
as that between dispersed particles and the gas ow. Under high super-
cial gas velocity conditions, the high gas velocity can break down the
clusters in addition to enhance the gassolid contacting efciency.
Therefore, the overall conversion of reactant can be increased rapidly
with solid holdup under high supercial gas velocity.
To study the relationship of overall ozone conversion and the
Damkhler number, researchers usually chose two typical ideal reactor
models: the plug-ow reactor (PFR) and the continuous stirred-tank
reactor (CSTR) as the bases to evaluate the riser performance [32,45,47].
Formulas for the conversion in PFR and CSTR can be derived as follows.
Plug ow reactor
0

X P FR 1 exp kr 5
Continuous stirred-tank reactor
0
kr
X CSTR 0 : 6
1 kr
As shown in Fig. 12, it is noted that the overall conversion increases
with increasing Damkhler number which is consistent with that of
solid holdup as has been discussed in details in the above sections.
 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362 59

Fig. 9. Ozone concentration in axial direction at extremely high density conditions [43].

Comparing the experimental overall conversion with the results
calculated based on the two model reactors, it is obvious that the exper-
imental conversion is not only less than that of PFR but also less than
that of CSTR except when the Damkhler number is low. The results
are similar to what had been reported by Ouyang et al. [45] in an
LDCFB riser. The possible interpretation is that the reactor performance
is related to the nature of the hydrodynamics in CFB system. There is a
two-phase ow structure in CFB riser: a dilute phase of individually
dispersed particles and/or small solid aggregates dominating in the
center and a dense phase due to extensive particle aggregation becoming
more signicant toward the wall. In the wall region, the solid holdup is
higher but with less reactant pass through this region compared to that
in the center region. Thus, the reactants merely pass through the center
of the bed, the under-converted region, and while less reactants pass
though the wall region, over-converted region. This gas bypassing
effect causes the reduction of the contact efciency leading to lower

1.0 0.6
Ug=7m.s
-1
Dimensionless ozone concentration

Gs=300 kg.m .s
-2 -1
0.5
0.8 .
Gs=700 kg m .s
-2 -1

Ozone concentration
Solids holdup 0.4
Solids holdup

0.6
0.3
0.4
0.2

0.2
0.1

0.0 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Normalized radial position

Fig. 10. Characteristics of ow structure at extremely high ux/density conditions [47]. Fig. 11. Reactor performance in CFB riser at various operating conditions [43].
60 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362

1.0 1.0
-2 -1
Gs=100kg.m .s
-1
Ug=5m.s
0.8 0.8 -1
Ug=7m.s
-1
Ug=9m.s
Overall conversion

Contact efficiency
0.6 0.6 -1 -2 -1
Ug=5m.s
-1 Ug=5m.s Gs=400kg.m .s
-1 -2 -1
Ug=7m.s
-1
Wang et al., 2014
[43] Ug=7m.s Gs=600kg.m .s
-1 -2 -1
.
Ug=9m s
-1 Ug=9m s Gs=600kg m .s
. .
0.4 0.4
-1 [36]
Ug=2-8m.s Ouyang et al., 1995

0.2 PFR
CSTR
0.2

0.0 0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Damkohler number Height/m

Fig. 12. Reactor performance in CFB riser at various operating conditions. Fig. 13. Characteristics of ow structure at extremely high ux/density conditions [47].

overall conversion. Therefore, the experimental overall conversion in the

riser is less than that of PFR or even less than that of CSTR [43].
4.4. Contact efciency based on ozone reaction testing
To quantify the gassolid contact using ozone decomposition reaction,
Jiang et al. [32] proposed a concept of contact efciency, , representing
the fraction of the external surface area of catalysts available for the
diffused ozone reactant from the gas phase based on an ideal plug ow
model reactor. For the rst order reaction, the contact efciency, can
be calculated as follow:
 
0

C=C 0 exp kr s 1s H=U g exp kr
This is not surprising since the particle distribution becomes more uni-
form with higher Ug and/or lower Gs, leading to a better gas solid contact.
Wang et al. [43] and other researchers [42] also investigated the
relationship between contact efciency and Damkhler number in the
CFB reactors shown in Fig. 14. It is seen that the overall contact efciency
decreases gradually with Damkhler number. Gassolid contact efciency
obtained in this work is comparable to the results reported in the litera-
ture [41,42,45]. Based on these data, an empirical correlation between
overall contact efciency and Damkhler number is derived as:
0
0:629
0:299 kr : 10
7

where s is the cross-sectional average solid holdup. The lower value of ,

the poor the reactor performance indicating that the CFB reactor deviates 1.0
from an ideal plug ow reactor with negligible axial dispersion. Wang et al., 2014
[43]

In order to determine local contact efciency at different levels, it Schoenfelder et al., 1996
[37]
0.8
is assumed that the CFB riser consist of a series of plug-ow reactors. Ouyang et al., 1993
[36]

Based on this assumption, the riser was divided into ten compartments, [33]
Contact efficiency

Bi et al., 1992
bounded by the axial measurement points. In each compartment, parti- 0.6 Jiang et al., 1991
[32]

cles are considered to be completely mixed and distributed uniformly.

Considering a compartment with dz in height, a mathematical model
-0.629
based on the material balance for the reactant in the compartment can 0.4 y=0.299x
2
be developed: R =0.90

U g dC 0.2
kr C s 8
1s dz
0.0
Thus, 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Damkoehler number
Ug dC
9
kr s 1s Cdz Fig. 14. Characteristics of ow structure at extremely high ux/density conditions.

where s is the cross-sectional average solid holdup and is the contact

efciency at a height of z. The value of contact efciency ranges from 0
to 1, with a larger value indicating more efcient gassolid contacting
and a better reactor performance nearly to the plug ow.
Fig. 13 shows the axial distribution of local contact efciency report-
ed by Wang et al. [47]. In general, the contact efciency in the riser is
below 1 and decreases from the reactor inlet towards the outlet as also
reported by other researchers [31,41,42]. Contact efciency is much
higher near the distributor probably due to the signicant gassolid tur-
bulence and mixing in this region. Moreover, with increasing Ug (such
as from 7 ms1 to 9 ms1 at constant Gs = 600 kgm2s1) and/or
decreasing Gs (such as from 600 kgm2s1 to 100 kgm2s1 at
xed Ug = 9 ms1), the contact efciency in the riser reactor increases.
5. Future Research Needs
While many studies on contact efciency have been carried out and
much better understanding of CFB contact efciency has been achieved
recently, there are still many areas where further research is needed:
(1) As discussed, few studies have been conducted with high solid
ux and high solid holdup in the circulating uidized bed riser,
more data and much detailed picture of both ow structure
and the reactant distribution is needed to allow the development
of the realistic and predictive reactor models of high density CFB
reactors.
 C. Wang, J. Zhu / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 24 (2016) 5362
(2) Most studies did so far have employed FCC or sand particles.
Systematic work with varying particle properties is needed to
broaden knowledge of the contact efciency of CFB reactors.
(3) Most data reported in the literature are from risers smaller than
100 mm in the diameter. More data from large scale units would
be desirable.
(4) The available experimental data mostly reported the global
hydrodynamic propertiessuch as averaged solid holdup and
averaged particle velocitywith few measurements of micro-
scopic properties such as the cluster size and solid holdup inside
the clusters. The results are thus clouded by uncertainties about
the actual contacting behavior between gas (reactant) and parti-
cles insides the CFB reactors. This eld sorely needs experimental
procedures capable of marking detailed measurements of cluster
properties to relate the contacting performance to the cluster and
other microscopic behavior.
6. Conclusion Remarks
Based on the papers reviewed and discussed in this review, some
conclusive remarks may be made as follows:
(1) Denition for gassolid contact efciency in a circulating uid-
ized bed based on indirect and direct measurement method
have been presented, and the key results are introduced.
(2) Gassolid contact efciency is affected by operating conditions.
Contact efciency increases with increasing supercial gas veloc-
ity and/or decreasing solid circulation rate.
(3) Contact efciency is also inuenced by particle size distribution.
Improved gassolid contact as coarser particles (above a certain
particle size limit) is used with coarser particles leading to
more permeable clusters and (hence) greater surface efciency.
(4) Solid holdup affects the overall ozone conversion with various
trends in LDCFB and HDCFB riser. There is much more signicant
inuence of solid holdup on overall reactant decomposition
under higher supercial gas velocity and/or lower solid circulation
rate.
(5) The values of calculated overall conversion are to some extent
smaller than those obtained based on the two ideal model reactors
(plug ow reactor and continuous stirred tank reactor) indicating
that hydrodynamics affects the reactor performance in the CFB
riser. The CFB riser is far away from an ideal plug ow reactor.
Nomenclature
A cross-section area of the bed, m2
C ozone concentration, ppm
C0 initial ozone concentration, ppm
C/C0 dimensionless ozone concentration
cpg specic heat of gas, Jkg1K1
Gs solid circulation rate, kgm2s1
H axial coordinate, or distance from gas distributor, m
hgs is the heat transfer coefcient between gas and solids,
Wm 2K 1
kr reaction rate constant, s1
kr Damkhler number
r/R reduced radial sampling positions
Tg the average gas temperature, K
Tg,1 is the gas temperature at the top of a given bed section, C
Tg,2 is the gas temperature at the bottom of a given bed section, C
Tp the average solid temperature, C
Ug supercial gas velocity, ms1
X overall ozone conversion
Z the height of a given bed section, m
is the surface to volume ratio of a particle, m1
61
s solid holdup
s(t) local instantaneous solid holdup
s cross-sectional average solid holdup
g gas density, kgm3
p particle density, kgm3
Subscripts
g Gas
p Particle
s Solids
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