Abstract
Bubbles rising through fluidized beds at velocities several times
superficial velocities contribute to solids backmixing. In
micro-fluidized beds, the walls constrain bubble sizes and velocities.
To evaluate gas-phase hydrodynamics and identify diffusional
contributions to longitudinal dispersion, we injected a mixture of H2,
CH4, CO, and CO2 (syngas) as a bolus into a fluidized bed of porous
fluid catalytic cracking catalyst while a mass-spectrometer monitored
the effluent gas concentrations at 2 Hz. The CH4, CO, and CO2 trailing
RTD traces were elongated versus H2 demonstrating a chromatographic
effect. An axial dispersion model accounted for 92% of the variance in
the data but including diffusional resistance between the bulk gas and
catalyst pores and adsorption explained 98.6% of the variability. At
300 °C, the CO2 tailing disappeared consistent with expectations in
chromatography (no adsorption). H2 and He are poor gas-phase tracers at
ambient temperature. We recommend measuring the RTD at operating
conditions.