Hydrodynamic performance of an industrial scale conical spouted bed

Background: To date, most of the studies concerning the scaling up of spouted beds suggest building units of multiple interconnected contactors instead of individual large contactors. In fact, large spouted beds have stability and operational problems, which can be partially overcome using a conical geometry. However, to our knowledge, the scaling up of conical spouted beds has not been approached in the literature. Methods: Therefore, a 1 m column diameter conical spouted bed has been built and its hydrodynamic behaviour has been studied based on characteristic curves. Different materials and configurations have been tested and the results have been compared with those obtained in a 0.36 m column diameter contactor. Findings: Results show that stable spouting regime is achieved in the large plant, even for . In addition, value gets closer to 1 as the particle diameter is decreased. Regarding operating pressure drop, values attained in demonstration plant are times greater for low porosity beds and around 2 times greater for high porosity beds. Moreover, new regimes have been identified before and after spouting regime, especially for coarse particles. These findings evidence the good performance of large conical spouted beds, which will help developing industrial scale units.