J. Inst. Eng. India Ser.

E (September 2013–February 2014) 94(2):73–78

DOI 10.1007/s40034-013-0022-9

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION

Hydrodynamics Studies in a Liquid Solid Circulating Fluidized

Bed of Varying Liquid Viscosity
G. S. Nirmala • L. Muruganandam

Received: 24 October 2013 / Accepted: 22 November 2013 / Published online: 13 December 2013
Ó The Institution of Engineers (India) 2013

Abstract To design an industrial liquid solid circulating List of symbols

fluidized bed system properly, it is important that the dp Particle diameter (m)
hydrodynamics be studied first. So far investigations have g Acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
been carried out in a liquid solid circulating fluidized bed UT Total superficial liquid velocity (m/s)
(LSCFB) with tap water as the liquid phase. There is still U1 Primary or main liquid velocity (m/s)
limited understanding on how particles are circulated in U2 Secondary or auxiliary liquid velocity (m/s)
LSCFB with viscous fluids. The aim of our work was to Ut Particle terminal velocity (m/s)
characterize the hydrodynamics in a LSCFB with varying Us Particle velocity (m/s)
viscosity. Experiments were conducted in a fluidized bed es Average solid hold-up
riser of 0.1 m diameter by 2.4 m height with different qs Density of solids (kg/m3)
viscous liquids, to study its effects of operating parameters ql Density of liquids (kg/m3)
namely; primary velocity, secondary velocity, total veloc- qm Density of medium (kg/m3)
ity, on the hydrodynamics characteristics of the LSCFB in l1 Viscosity of water (cP)
terms of solid holdup, solid circulation rate and particle Dq Density difference (qs-q1) (kg/m3)
velocity. Experiments were conducted using water and
glycerol at different concentration. The solid particle resin
of 0.5 mm diameter was used for the experiment. The Introduction
results indicate that the solid hold up in the riser is axially
uniform for viscous liquids and increases with increase in In liquid–solid systems, an increase in flow rate above
auxiliary velocity. The average solid holdup found to minimum fluidization, usually results in a smooth pro-
decrease with increase in total velocity and increases with gressive expansion of the bed where gross flow instabilities
increase in liquid viscosity as the critical transitional are damped and remain small, and heterogeneity or large-
velocity decreases with the increase in viscosity. The solid scale voids of liquid were not observed under normal
circulation rate is found to increase with increase in total conditions and this bed is called a particulately fluidized
velocity and auxiliary velocity, and also increases with bed, a homogeneously fluidized bed. Liquid solid circu-
increasing viscosity. lating fluidized beds hold considerable promise as ideal
liquid solid contactors [1, 2]. Liquid solid circulating flu-
Keywords LSCFB  Varying viscosity  Hydrodynamics  idized bed (LSCFB) has a number of attractive features
Solids circulation rate  Solid holdup which makes them suitable for processes where liquid and
solid contacting is important. Effective solid liquid con-
tacting, uniform temperatures, accommodating different
G. S. Nirmala (&)  L. Muruganandam particulate materials with high liquid throughputs, less
Chemical Engineering Division, School of Mechanical
back mixing and improved heat transfer performance.
and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore 632014,
Tamil Nadu, India LSCFB is a new type of contacting device having potential
e-mail: gsnirmala@vit.ac.in applications in the field of food processing, biochemical

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processing, environmental engineering, petrochemical and
metallurgical processing. Zhu et al. [2] provided a critical
review based on the result collected from the literature on
the liquid solid circulating fluidized beds [3–6] and gas
solid circulating fluidized bed (GSCFB) to raise the
attention of researchers and industrial practitioners for the
promising multiphase contractors. Liquid–solid circulating
reactors form the heart of emerging alkylation processes
for the production of motor fuel additives and also for the
manufacture of linear alkyl benzene (LAB). Alkylation
processes have been and continue to be a very important
class of industrial reactions. Lan et al. [7, 8] reported the
application of LSCFB for continuous protein recovery.
Using LSCFB they investigated total recovery of protein
from whey solutions. It contains a down comer for protein
adsorption and a riser for protein desorption, with ion
exchange particles circulating continuously between the
riser and down comer. A better understanding of these beds
could be achieved by focusing on the hydrodynamics and
transport phenomena in such beds.
A typical LSCFB consists of a riser with primary and
secondary flow, a solids separator and a down comer
which feeds the solids to the riser. The riser is a fast
column operating in a circulating regime and the down
comer is a slow column operated either in fixed or flu-
idized bed regime. The hydrodynamic information of
interest include flow regime, flow pattern at each phase,
solid circulation rate and solid holdup. In the past lot of
work has been done on the hydrodynamics in the riser of
LSCFBs and its overall operation [5–13]. All studies
reported uniform distribution of solid holdup in the axial
direction and nonuniform radial distribution in the riser.
In liquid–solid circulating systems, most particles tend to
distribute uniformly in the axial direction of a riser.
Vidyasagar et al. [13, 14] studied the flow properties at
various liquid velocities and solid inventory in the down
comer at two different locations of the primary liquid
distributor, and also reported that the hydrodynamics for
three experimental methods keeping the solid feeding
structure similar. Natarajan et al. [10, 11] experimentally
studied the effects of particle size, density and variation
of liquid velocity on the flow characteristics, regime
transition, and stable operating range of LSCFB were
studied. Sang and Zhu [15] reported the effect of particle
properties on solid holdup in the riser of LSCFB experi-
mentally based on three parameters namely superficial
liquid velocity, normalized superficial liquid velocity and
the excess superficial liquid velocity and it was reported
that excess superficial liquid velocity is more appropriate
parameter to evaluate the effect of particle properties on
the solid holdup.
However mostly all investigations were carried out in
LSCFB with tap water as a liquid phase. The effect of
123
G. S.Nirmala, L. Muruganandam
liquid viscosity on the riser operated in variable inven-
tory mode was studied by a few investigators with
respect to solid behaviour and flow structure. There were
a few reports [16–18] available on the effect of viscosity
on mixing, heat transfer, regime transition and radial
solids distribution in the case of variable inventory mode
of LSCFB. Effect of liquid viscosity on fixed inventory
mode was studied by Vidyasagar et al. [14] for different
solid inventory and macroscopic flow properties. In many
applications, viscous liquids are used in industrial pro-
cesses as processing fluids. The LSCFB with viscous
fluids has a significant effect on determining the hydro-
dynamics and transport properties in a LSCFB. The
critical analysis of the literature indicates the effect of
liquid viscosity on hydrodynamics was not studied for
low density particle resin. For low density particle there
was smooth and particulate type fluidization with uni-
form axial solid holdup distribution as the particles reach
the fully developed zone soon after entering the riser as
the buoyancy force is more predominant. Hence an
attempt has been made to study the effect of liquid
viscosity, liquid flow rate on macroscopic flow properties
namely average solid holdup, axial solid distribution and
solid circulation rate for water and glycerol–water
solution.
Materials and Methods
The LSCFB consisted of a riser column, liquid–solid sep-
arator and down comer as depicted in Fig. 1. The riser had
a diameter of 0.1 m and a height of 2.4 m. The riser had
pressure tapings at regular intervals of 0.150 m and was
connected to a multi-limb manometer to measure the drop
in pressure for each section of the riser. The liquid pumped
from the reservoir is admitted as two streams with main
stream entering the riser through the primary liquid dis-
tributor and the secondary through the auxiliary distributor
via respective precalibrated rotameters. The function of the
auxiliary liquid flow rate is to fluidize the particles at the
base of the riser and to regulate the solid flow from the
storage vessel into the riser. When the auxiliary liquid flow
rate is set to zero, no particles can enter the riser from the
solid storage tank because of high resistance caused by the
particle layer at the riser bottom. When the combined
velocities of the primary and auxiliary are higher than the
critical liquid velocity it enables the particles to move
concurrently to the top of the riser and then the particles are
separated in the liquid solid separator. The separated solids
return to the downcomer through solids returning point and
solid circulation rate measuring devices. The liquid is
returned to the liquid reservoir which is pumped back to the
riser.
Hydrodynamics Studies in a Liquid Solid Circulating Fluidized Bed
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of experimental setup
In a typical experiment, the riser column was packed
with particles to a known height. The primary liquid was
added to the column, through flow meters at low intervals,
till the bed expanded to its entire length. When the solids
were about to entrain from the top of the riser the sec-
ondary liquid was added and circulation between the riser
and the down comer was started. At steady state pressure
drop is measured at different locations along the riser. The
separated solids return to the downcomer through solids
returning point and solid circulation rate measuring devi-
ces. The solid circulation rate was determined by closing
the ball valve and noting the time required to accumulate a
defined height of solids above the valve. The experiments
were continued with an increasing primary liquid velocity
until the transport regime was reached, while keeping the
secondary velocity constant. The procedure was repeated
for different, constant secondary velocities by varying the
primary velocity. The solid holdup is measured by noting
the pressure gradient at different locations along the riser.
Average solid holdup is determined for each measured
section using Eq. (1), neglecting the effect of wall friction.
Dp
 ¼ ðqs es þ ql el Þg ð1Þ
Dz
where es ? e1 = 1, resin with an average diameter of
0.5 mm and a density of 1,400 kg/m3 were used as the
dispersed phase. Tap water and aqueous glycerol were used
as the continuous phase. The physical properties of the
liquid, solid and operating conditions maintained are
shown in Tables 1 and 2.
75
Results and Discussion
The visual observation of liquid solid circulating fluidized
was possible as the test section was made of acrylic. For
the low density particle (resin) at higher liquid velocities
with particle feeding at the bottom of the riser, it has been
noted that particles are entrained by the liquid in the fully
developed zone with a smooth and particulate type of
fluidization.
Effect of Auxiliary Velocity on Average Solid Holdup
The effect of auxiliary velocity on solid hold up was
studied by different authors for solid–water system [5–13].
The variation of solid hold up in the riser with change in
total velocity keeping auxiliary velocity constant for resin
water system is shown in Fig. 2. It is shown in the present
study that for the given auxiliary velocity, solid hold up
decreases with increase in total velocity and increases with
increase in auxiliary velocity. This due to the fact that at
low auxiliary velocities there is a slow movement of solids
in the return pipe with low solid loading in the riser and an
increase in the auxiliary velocity increases the flow of
solids into the return pipe. On the other hand it is also noted
that at fixed auxiliary velocity solid holdup decreases
rapidly with an increase in total velocity termed as initial
circulating zone and then at higher total velocity solid
holdup shows a plateau which indicates that the solid flow
enters into the fully developed zone.
Axial Solid Holdup Profile
The effect of axial solid holdup for viscous solutions at
different locations along the length of the riser for resin–
glycerol at 1.36 cP is shown in Fig. 3. It is observed that
there exists a similar flow structure in the axial distribution
of solid holdup at the lower section (0.6 m), the middle
section (0.9 and 1.2 m), and the upper section (1.5 and
1.8 m) of the riser for the given primary velocity. It can
also be observed that at every axial position, solid hold up
is found to increase with an increase in the auxiliary
velocity as the movement of solids in the return pipe
increases with increase in auxiliary velocity. Further it was
observed for low density particle resin a smooth particulate
type fluidization with uniform axial holdup distribution
was observed.
Effect of Liquid Viscosity on Solid Holdup
For the same set of auxiliary liquid velocity for water
system, an increase in solid hold up was observed with
increasing viscosity of liquid as shown in Fig. 4 for resin
glycerol. For the given total liquid velocity, for all the
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76 G. S.Nirmala, L. Muruganandam

Table 1 Physical property of the liquids and solids used in the

present study
Fluidizing Density Viscosity Terminal velocity
liquid (kg/m3) (cP) of resin particles
(m/s)

Tap water 1,000 1 0.03064

5 vol% aqueous glycerol 1,011 1.085 0.02916
15 vol% aqueous glycerol 1,036 1.36 0.02568

Table 2 Operating conditions maintained

Variables Range

Primary liquid velocity (m/s) 0.0106–0.046001

Auxiliary liquid velocity (m/s) 0.0141–0.02477 Fig. 3 Effect of auxiliary velocity on axial solid holdup
Total liquid velocity (m/s) 0.02477–0.06723
Viscosity of liquid (cP) 1.00–1.36
Liquid density (kg/m3) 1,000–1,036
Terminal velocity of resin (m/s) 0.03064, 0.02916, 0.02568

Fig. 4 Effect of liquid viscosity on solid holdup

Effect of Total Liquid Velocity on Solid Velocity

Fig. 2 Effect of total velocity on average solid holdup
liquid viscosity, the average solid holdup decreases with
increase in superficial total velocity as more particles are
entrained which in turn shows lower solid concentration
but, with increase in viscosity solid holdup is found to
increase. As evident from Fig. 4 the increase in solid
holdup is due to the fact that circulating fluidization regime
starts much earlier for viscous system as its terminal
velocity decreases with increase in viscosity. This obser-
vation is similar to the result obtained by Vidyasagar et al.
[14] for glass beads of 1.36 mm diameter.
Quantity of the solids fed and the total liquid velocity were
the variables affecting solid circulation rate in a circulating
fluidized bed. Figure 5 shows the variation of solid velocity
for resin–water system. For a given total velocity, solid
circulation rate increases with increase in auxiliary liquid
velocity, as more solids were introduced into the riser from
the down comer as the function of it is to regulate solid
flux. The data shows with an increase in auxiliary velocity
solid circulation rate curve increases steeply at low liquid
velocity and then at higher liquid velocity solid circulation
rate with liquid velocity is insignificant. It is also noted that
increase in solid velocity with liquid velocity shows two
regions. In the region 1, solid velocity increases rapidly
with increasing velocity followed by region 2, in which

123
Hydrodynamics Studies in a Liquid Solid Circulating Fluidized Bed
Fig. 5 Effect of solid velocity on total liquid velocity
Fig. 6 Effect of viscosity on solid velocity
solid velocity increases insignificantly as reported by pre-
vious researchers for water system [5, 10, 12, 13].
Effect of Liquid Viscosity on Solid Velocity
The amount of literature is less on the effect of liquid
viscosity on solid circulation rate which is expressed as
superficial particle velocity (Us = Gs/qsA).The variation
in solid velocity with total liquid velocity for resin glycerol
with respect to viscosity effect is shown in Fig. 6. It may be
noticed that the variation of solid velocity with liquid
velocity for viscous system shows the similar trend for
water system. The results showed that circulating fluid-
ization regime appears at low velocities with increase in
liquid viscosity. The solid circulation velocity is found to
be higher for viscous solution than for water due to
decrease in terminal settling velocity which in turn
77
decreases the critical transitional velocity therefore circu-
lating fluidization starts earlier for resin glycerol system as
depicted in Fig. 6.
Conclusion
The effect of liquid flow rate and viscosity of liquid were
studied in a liquid solid circulating fluidized bed. The
average solid holdup decreases with increase in primary
and total velocity and found to increase with increase in
auxiliary velocity. For a given total liquid velocity, the
solid holdup was found to increase with increase in vis-
cosity. The solid circulation rate is found to increase with
increase in total velocity and auxiliary velocity. Circulating
fluidized bed regime was reached at lower velocity with
increase in liquid viscosity from 1 to 1.36 cP due to the
enhancement of shear stress acting on the particle which
results in increase of drag force acting on the fluidized
particles.
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