The fluidised bed drying characteristics of soybeans at high temperatures (110-140 degrees C) and moisture contents, 31-49% dry basis, were modelled using drying equations from the literature. Air speeds of 2.4-4.1 m/s and bed depths from 10 to 15 cm were used. The minimum fluidised bed velocity was 1.9 m/s. From a quality point of view, fluidised bed drying was found to reduce the level of ure...

This study investigates the use of microencapsulation by fluidised bed coating for the protection of ascorbic acid during long-term storage under simulated tropical conditions. Microencapsulation materials, loading levels, fluidised bed processing conditions and the results of storage trials were evaluated. Cellets® 350 is a suitable base material, whereas sugar spheres are not suitable due to ...

Cd, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn behaviour during sewage sludge incineration was investigated in seven pilot tests using a circulating fluidised bed furnace. Dewatered sludge at a solids concentration of 15-18% was fed to the furnace either alone (two tests) or spiked with chlorinated organic compounds (five tests). The behaviour of metals in the fluidised bed furnace was studied by comparing metal c...

The purpose of the air distribution system in a fluidised bed combustor is to provide a reasonably uniform spread of combustion air over the entire horizontal cross-sectional area of the bed. One of the simplest, and hence cheapest, forms of air distributor is the sparge pipe design, in which an array of horizontal pipes is fitted at the base of the bed. Combustion air is then supplied to one e...

Experiments were undertaken to study drying kinetics of different shaped moist food particulates during heat pump assisted fluidised bed drying. Three particular geometrical shapes of parallelepiped, cylindrical and spheres were selected from potatoes (aspect ratio = 1:1, 2:1, 3:1), cut beans (length: diameter = 1:1, 2:1, 3:1) and peas respectively. A batch fluidised bed dryer connected to a he...

A process model for pressurised fluidised-bed gasification of biomass was developed using Aspen Plus simulation software. Eight main blocks were used to model the fluidised-bed gasifier, complemented with FORTRAN subroutines nested in the programme to simulate hydrocarbon and NH3 formation as well as carbon conversion. The model was validated with experimental data derived from a PDU-scale test...

Liver-assist devices have been developed in the last few decades to support patients with liver failure on the road to recovery or transplantation. Fluidised bed bio-artificial livers--where liver cells are encapsulated within alginate beads--appear to be a valuable alternative to hollow fibre devices for improving mass transfers and enhancing treatment efficacy. This approach nevertheless dese...

The rapid depletion of oil and the environmental impact of combustion has motivated the search for clean combustion technologies. Fluidised bed combustion (FBC) technology works by suspending a fuel over a fast air inlet whilst sustaining the required temperatures. Using biomass or a mixture of coal/biomass as the fuel, FBC provides a low-carbon combustion technology whilst operating at low tem...

To investigate the hydrodynamic behaviour of industrial scale bubbling fluidised bed reactors, a 3D Discrete Bubble Model (DBM) has been developed. In the DBM, an Euler-Lagrange model, the bubbles are treated as discrete elements and the bubble trajectories are tracked individually, while the emulsion phase is considered as a continuum and is described with the continuity and Navier-Stokes equa...