Bed expansion and pressure drop studies in a liquid-solid inverse fluidised bed reactor

Abstract Hydrodynamic characteristics (bed expansion and pressure drop) of a different type of two phase fluidised bed reactor termed as liquid-solid inverse fluidised bed reactor in which low density particles are fluidised with downward flow of liquid are studied in the present investigation. Experiments were conducted using 6 mm diameter spherical particles of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) with water and aqueous solutions of Carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC). It was found that the minimum fluidisation velocity, Umf decreased with increase in CMC concentration and solid density. A dimensionless correlation was proposed for the prediction of bed height at fully fluidised conditions.