Fluidized Bed Reactors

One of the major problems with stirred tank reactors is the attrition of the
matrix resulting from the vigorous stirring required for proper suspension of
particles, and this becomes more problematic if the particles are heavier, larger
and fragile matrices such as gels are used. When high volume fractions of
biomass particles are preferred, and this obviously enhances the reactor
efficiency, fluidized bed technology offers many possibilities. Such reactors are
not very different from bubble columns, except maybe for the higher biomass
fraction.

Figure 4. Fluidized bed reactors (a) fluidized bed (b) tapered fluidized
bed, (adopted by ref. 5).
In its simplest two-phase operation (Figure 4), a flow of liquid is directed
through the particles at velocities above the 'minimum fluidization velocity'. This
is the velocity at which the pressure drop over the bed equals the weight of the
particles per unit surface and they are lifted off their fixed bed state. At higher
velocities, the bed will expand and only at much higher velocities will particles be
entrained by the liquid and the fluidized bed organization destroyed. The settling
rate drops as the solids fraction in the bed increases, and consequently the
minimum fluidization velocity is much lower than the settling velocity of a single
particle. Design of such systems in terms of adequate fluid velocities is not very
difficult, but in bioreactors of this type the size and density of the aggregates or
particles will depend on the growth and hydrodynamic conditions and these are
very difficult to predict accurately. The expansion or minimum fluidization
velocities are very sensitive to these two parameters. This results in a complex
coupled system which is not easily accurately described. If, however, the
supporting particles are rather heavy and measures are taken for a stable film
thickness, stable operation and easy design will be possible. Excess biomass
detached from the particles is entrained by the fluid and can be separated from
the effluent.(mechanism!!!!!)
Since the requirements of fluidization flow rate will seldom match the throughput
for complete conversion in continuous systems, recycling is necessary to obtain
good fluidization. Using some bed expansion and higher flow rates will give
higher mass transfer rates from the liquid to the particles. Clogging and dead
zones will also be avoided and attrition may help in controlling the particle film
thickness.
Depending on particle size and density, liquid and gas flow rates, the use of
recycle and bed geometry, several mixing patterns may be obtained in which the
liquid phase and the solid phase are mixed or not. This is important for the
micro-organisms as in non-mixed solid systems they will see rather steady
conditions, but will rapidly face different conditions of pH, temperature and
concentrations of substrate, oxygen and product in the case of mixing. If the
liquid is well mixed, the concentrations are equal in all points and if complete
conversion is desired, the resulting conversion rates may be low.
With little axial mixing (especially for large height/diameter ratios), a
concentration profile may be maintained and high conversion rates in the
entrance region may be combined with complete exhaustion of the substrate in
the exit part of the reactor.
In some cases a tapered form of the reactor is useful to obtain gradients in the
local velocities (Figure 4b). In the narrow bottom zone, a 'spouted bed'
operation results and this gives extra mixing, mass transfer and attrition without
risk of particle entrainment in the top of the column. As high concentrations in
the inlet section may give more gas evolution or require better external mass
transfer to the particles, this geometry may be beneficial. Given the complexity
of flow and mixing patterns in fluidised bed systems, there is no easy way to
predict the performance and at least a few pilot tests on a reasonable scale are
needed before designing a full-scale plant. Usually the top of the reactor has to
be wider to allow for settling of the particles and keeping the effluent clear of
immobilized biomass, but other solutions are possible (screens or settling cones).
In three-phase operation, air is injected into the bed and of course destroys
some of the characteristics of two-phase operation, usually resulting in strong
backmixing in the system, except for large height to diameter ratios. With high
gas rates one reverts to air lift or bubble column operation. In the case of strong
gas evolution, also some disruption of the flow patterns can result. When the
support particles are lighter than the fluid phase (many polymers), inverted fluid
bed operation is necessary and has been proposed as an interesting alternative
for some applications.




Properties of fluidized beds[edit]
A fluidized bed consists of fluid-solid mixture that exhibits fluid-like properties. As such,
the upper surface of the bed is relatively horizontal, which is analogous to hydrostatic
behavior. The bed can be considered to be a heterogeneous mixture of fluid and solid
that can be represented by a single bulk density.
Furthermore, an object with a higher density than the bed will sink, whereas an object
with a lower density than the bed will float, thus the bed can be considered to exhibit the
fluid behavior expected of Archimedes' principle. As the "density", (actually the solid
volume fraction of the suspension), of the bed can be altered by changing the fluid
fraction, objects with different densities comparative to the bed can, by altering either the
fluid or solid fraction, be caused to sink or float. This is illustrated in the following
video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BqVFGCUviY .
In fluidized beds, the contact of the solid particles with the fluidization medium (a gas or
a liquid) is greatly enhanced when compared to packed beds. This behavior in fluidized
combustion beds enables good thermal transport inside the system and good heat
transfer between the bed and its container. Similarly to the good heat transfer, which
enables thermal uniformity analogous to that of a well mixed gas, the bed can have a
significant heat-capacity whilst maintaining a homogeneous temperature field.

Refereces tambah 1

http://www.metal.ntua.gr/~pkousi/e-learning/bioreactors/page_10.htm