Powder Technology 244 (2013) 93–99

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Powder Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Review

Granular bed filter: A promising technology for hot gas clean-up

Gang Xiao, Xihui Wang, Jiapeng Zhang, Mingjiang Ni ⁎, Xiang Gao, Zhongyang Luo, Kefa Cen
State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Institute for Thermal Power Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Hot gas clean-up is important in the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and advanced pressurized
Received 28 November 2012 fluidized-bed combustion (PFBC) technologies, which have greater efficiencies and less environmental impacts.
Received in revised form 5 April 2013 The present work attempts to provide a general understanding of granular bed filters, a promising technology for
Accepted 6 April 2013
hot gas clean-up. Granular bed filters can be designed as fixed beds, fluidized beds and moving granular beds, and
Available online 15 April 2013
in this paper, their characteristics and performances are summarized and discussed. A fixed bed granular filter
Keywords:
has the disadvantage that gas flow must be stopped periodically for cleaning; however, its particle collection
Granular bed filter efficiency is greater than 99%. A fluidized bed filter provides continuous operation, though it is less efficient at
Hot gas clean-up removing small particles. Moving granular beds are promising for hot gas clean-up because typically, they oper-
IGCC ate continuously with high filtration efficiencies (over 97%) and small pressure losses.
PFBC © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
2. Basic filtration mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3. Granular bed filter categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.1. Fixed bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.2. Fluidized bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.3. Granular moving bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4. Filtration media and performance comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

1. Introduction
The integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and advanced
pressurized fluidized-bed combustion (PFBC) technologies promise
electricity generation with substantially greater thermodynamic effi-
ciencies and reduced environmental impacts [1]. Since the 1990s, at
least five coal-fired IGCC commercial demonstration units for power
generation were built, including the Wabash River and TECO Tampa
power plant in America, Nuon Buggnum in Holland, Puertollano in
Spain and Nakoso in Japan. ABB Carbon, the company that built the
first commercial PFBC unit, has produced one P800-type unit, which
was installed in the Karita power plant and six P200-type PFBC units:
two units in the Vartan power plant in Sweden and the remaining
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 571 87953290; Fax: +86 571 87951616.
E-mail address: ceu_ni@zju.edu.cn (M. Ni).
units in the Escatron power plant in Spain, Tidd in America, Wakamatsu
in Japan and Cottbus in German. The Japanese companies, MHI and
Hitachi, have produced 85-MW and 250-MW PFBC units, which were
installed in the Hokkaido and Osaki power plants, respectively [2]. For
these power systems, gasified gases at extremely high temperatures,
above 1260 °C, enter gas turbines to generate power. To protect the
downstream heat exchanger and gas turbine components from fouling
and erosion while cleaning the gas stream to meet environmental emis-
sion requirements, it is critical for the power system to effectively re-
move particulates [3].
The objective in the development of advanced power systems is
collecting particles at temperatures between 370 °C to 595 °C for
IGCC and 760 °C to 870 °C for PFBC. However, due to the limitations
of the developed technologies, current IGCC systems can only remove
particulates by condensing or quenching the raw fuel gas with water
(wet scrubbing). Present PFBC designs use cyclone (inertial) separa-
tors upstream of the gas turbine in conjunction with an electrostatic

0032-5910/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2013.04.003
94 G. Xiao et al. / Powder Technology 244 (2013) 93–99

precipitator (ESP) and fabric filter downstream of the gas turbine [4], Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature, g is the gravitational
which can result in high costs and low efficiency [5]. acceleration, uf is the superficial fluid velocity, Qc and Qp are the electri-
Ceramic candle filters and granular bed filters are the most prom- cal charge density on the bed materials and the particles to be removed
ising methods in hot gas clean-up for advanced coal conversion tech- respectively, Kc is a positive dimensionless electrical constant, εf is the
nologies [6]. Candle filters generally have an extremely high cleaning fluid dielectric constant, and ER, EI, ED, EG and EEl are the single sphere
efficiency, approximately 99.8% [7]. Several ceramic barrier filters collection efficiency of interception, inertial impaction, diffusion, gravi-
are nearing commercialization for a temperature range of 250 °C to tational settling and electrostatic attraction, respectively.
400 °C [8]. However, ceramic filters quickly become clogged with col- The total collection efficiency of a single granule Et can be ex-
lected gas-entrained particles, resulting in an unacceptable increase in pressed by
pressure drop across the filter and requiring a way to clean the surface
of the filters [5,9]. In addition, a significant number of ceramic filters Et ¼ 1−ð1−ER Þð1−EI Þð1−ED Þð1−EG Þð1−EEl Þ: ð1Þ
have broken in various experimental and demonstration devices,
particularly during long-term testing of the candle filter system at The total bed efficiency η [22] is
the Tidd station [10]. Granular bed filters are more attractive because h
 i
they use low-cost filter media and have a constant pressure drop when η ¼ 1− exp −K 1 ð1−ε Þ L=dp Et ð2Þ
the filter is operated as a moving bed [10,11]. Experimental or pilot tests
of granular bed filters have been performed in Japan by the Coal Mining where K1 is a constant, and L is the depth of bed.
Research Centre at the Yubari fluidized-bed test facility at IGCC condi- The effect of diffusion increases slowly as the particle size falls within
tions, Electrified Filter Bed (EFB) Inc. Air Pollution Technology (APT), submicron ranges and is dominated by nano-particles. Interception is
Combustion Power Company (CPC) and Siemens-Westinghouse [12]. important for small particles within the sub-micron to several micron
There are primarily three types of operating processes: fixed bed, mov- size range. For particles at sizes of tens of microns, inertial impaction
ing bed and fluidized bed [13–17]. and gravitational settling should be considered [20]. According to Pfeffer
The present work attempts to provide a comprehensive understand- et al. [21], in order for electrical effects to be of any importance in en-
ing of granular bed filters, a promising technology for hot gas clean-up. hancing particles deposition on granules, the following inequality
Several main aspects are summarized and discussed, including the basic must be satisfied:
principles, characteristics of different types of granular bed filters and
their performances. Kc
1=2 2
> R ; Kc
3=2 −1
> Pe ; K c > Ga ·St: ð3Þ

2. Basic filtration mechanism

As for the other operating variables, such as operating gas velocity,
temperature, size of filtration medium and depth of granular bed, etc.,
The basic principle of granular filtration is the removal of suspended
it is difficult to quantitatively identify the predominate mechanism.
particles by passage through filter media composed of granular materi-
Qualitative analysis is done to study the effects of the following pa-
al. As the suspension flows through the media, various forces, which
rameters on filtration efficiency: increasing superficial velocity results
include van der Waal's force, capillary force, gravity and electrostatic
in a compacted dust cake on the surface of the granules, which is
force, act on the particles and cause them to become deposited on the
helpful for particle collection; the influence of temperature is compli-
surface of the granules [18]. The mechanisms of collecting particles in-
cated and primarily includes three aspects. Firstly, increasing the
clude interception, inertial impaction, diffusion, gravitational settling
temperature decreases the viscous force between particles, leading
and electrostatic attraction. Except for interception, the efficiencies of
to re-entrainment of deposited dusts; secondly, increasing the tem-
the other mechanisms are primarily related to gas velocities and opera-
perature strongly increases attrition of particles, which could release
tion temperatures [19]. The expressions of efficiencies of different
small particles; thirdly, high temperatures strengthen the diffusion
mechanisms have been presented by Liu et al. [20], Pfeffer et al.
of particles. The first two effects are negative effects, whereas the
[21], and Gal et al. [22], as listed in Table 1 where R is the interception
third effect helps to remove dust. Small size of the filtration medium
parameter, dc and dp are the diameters of the bed materials and particles
usually results in a low porosity and high collection efficiency. A large
to be removed, respectively, d is the dimensionless construction diame-
bed depth is helpful at removing particles when pressure loss is not a
ter of the constricted tube, ε is the bed porosity, Re, St, Pe and Ga are the
concern.
Reynolds number, Stokes number, Péclet number and Galileo number,
respectively, ρp, μ and λ are the density of the particles, gas dynamic
3. Granular bed filter categories
viscosity and mean free path of gas molecules, respectively, k is the
3.1. Fixed bed
Table 1
Efficiencies of different mechanisms. Fig. 1 shows a fixed bed operating in a granular bed filter, in which
granules are the filtration media. A packed bed filter [23], as shown in
Mechanisms Important dimensionless Efficiency
parameter Fig. 1a, is the simplest structure of a fixed bed, where a stainless steel
  holder with a certain diameter supports a layer of silica sand or other
dp 3
Interception R¼
dc
ER ¼
ε
R materials as the packed media of the bed. During the filtration process,
ρp uf dp 2 C c    dirty gas flows through the media where most of the dust is trapped. As
Inertial St ¼ EI ¼ ð1 þ 0:04ReÞ St þ f R more and more particles are deposited on the granules, a dust cake
9μdc
impaction
dc uf kT 4:52 forms, collection becomes more effective, and the pressure drop across
Diffusion Pe ¼ , Dp ¼ Cc ED ¼
Dp 3πμdp ðε PeÞ1=2 the filter media increases. For the regeneration process, a back flow
dc g passes vertically through the filter bed of granules; the dust previously
Gravitational Ga ¼ EG = Ga ⋅ St
settling
2uf 2 retained in the filter media is entrained in the fluidized gas stream, and
C c dp Q c Q p the filter media is regenerated. Kuo et al. [24] investigated the filtration
Electrostatic Kc ¼ EEl = 4Kc
3ε f μuf and loading characteristics of a granular bed filter, where Fig. 1a shows a
attraction ! !

  2 1=2
2λ dp   4 R R
1:041
schematic. A parameter called the ‘filter quality factor’ is defined as
Cc ¼ 1 þ 1:257 þ 0:4 exp −0:55 , f R ¼ 0:48 4− R− 2
dp λ d d d − ln P
qf ¼ , which combines the effect of the penetration rate P and
ΔP
 G. Xiao et al. / Powder Technology 244 (2013) 93–99 95

outer edges in a “traditional” panel bed filter. Squires [30] changed

the louvers slope to downward towards the outer edges. For a given
panel bed height, down-sloping louvers present a larger total gas-
entry sand face, allowing the equipment to occupy a smaller ground
area for a given filtering capacity. Puffback renewal of gas-entry sand
faces is more effective in down-sloping louvers than in other structures.
The fixed bed suffers from a major disadvantage: gas flow must be
periodically stopped for cleaning [5].

3.2. Fluidized bed

Although the fixed-bed type is the most common device for granular
filtration, the fluidized bed has the advantages of continuous operation
and regeneration. In the 1970s and 1980s, studies on particle filtration
by fluidized beds were conducted because a new type of energy produc-
tion system, such as the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC),
was developed [31]. A fluidized bed, as shown in Fig. 2, can capture pol-
lutants, such as acid gases [32], organic compounds [33,34], heavy
metals [33] and particulates [34]. Particles and other pollutants collide
with granules and are then trapped. Coarse particles are deposited
and become filtration medium, and at the same time, fine particles are
eluted from the fluidized bed.
The phenomenon of filtering particles by a fluidized bed is complex,
and the parameters that affect the control efficiency of filtration vary,
including the operating flow rate [35], bed temperature [36], adhesion
of the particles [37], size of particles to be removed [38] and the bed
Fig. 1. Schematic of fixed bed.
material diameter [31,39]. When the superficial velocity is between
0.1 and 0.8 m/s, the penetration for small particles at low air velocities
pressure drop ΔP to determine the performance of the filter media in is strongly reduced by inter-particle adhesion forces. For Geldart
[24]. The results indicated that small granules result in a high collection group A powders, the gravitational force dominates. At high superficial
efficiency but causes a high pressure drop. As a result, the “best” filter is velocities, the hydrodynamic forces overrule adhesion effects. It was
dependent on the size of the particles to be removed. From the stand shown that the removal efficiency increased when the temperature
point of the filter quality factor, filters made of large granules perform increased from 36 °C to 500 °C when other parameters were kept
better, particularly when the face velocity is low. For all granule sizes, constant [40]. The strong attrition at high temperatures (e.g., 500 °C)
the filter quality factor decreases as the particle size to be removed in- released more small particles than that at low temperatures (e.g.,
creases when the diameter is less than 0.8 μm, whereas the factor in- 150 °C), greatly increasing the concentration of PM10 particles with a
creases when the diameter is greater than 0.8 μm. Small granules size peak at 4–7 μm and decreasing the collection efficiency. The elutri-
result in a high collection efficiency but less dust capacity. To increase ation rate of large particles in dust-laden gas increases with the propor-
the collection efficiency and bed dust capacity simultaneously, Yang tion of fine particles in the bed filtration media, and the collection of fine
and Zhou [25] proposed a dual-layer granular bed filter. Granules con- particles in dust-laden gas is not affected by the size distribution of the
sist of two layers, a lower layer with small, heavy granules and an bed filtration media [39], as shown by Wey et al. [31]. Urciuolo et al. [41]
upper layer with large, light-weight granules. The upper filter media en-
sures a large dust capacity because of their large size, and the lower
layer provides an extremely high filtration efficiency due to the small
diameter of the filter media.
A panel bed filter [26], as shown in fig. 1b, has three sets of louvers
that hold up two adjacent beds. The left is a panel bed with a finer filtra-
tion sand, and the right is a coarser “backing” sand. A central column of
narrowly spaced, horizontal louvers separates the filtration sand from
the backing sand, the latter being held in place between the central
louvers and the horizontal backside louvers. Vertical spacing between
an adjacent pair of central louvers is adjusted to prevent the coarser
solid from participating in the body movement of the fine solid that
puffback creates. During the filtering stage, filter cakes accumulate on
the bed's gas-entry surfaces. In the cleaning stage, the flow of dusty
gas is interrupted, and a puffback causes the filter cakes together with
the surface layers of the granular filtration medium to fall from the
gas-entry surfaces to renew for another cycle of filtration. The panel
bed filter can operate at high filtration velocities compared with that
of bag filters and maintain a high efficiency at a low residual pressure
[27]. The dust cake formation process in a panel bed filter is comprehen-
sive. At room temperature, fly ash deposits goes through three periods:
penetration, filling the pits and the surface period [28]. At an elevated
temperature, e.g., 150 and 350 °C, fly ash deposits exhibit a more com-
plex behavior, which is affected by the granules material and size and
the entry-gas velocity [29]. The louvers slope upward toward their Fig. 2. Schematic of fluidized bed.
96 G. Xiao et al. / Powder Technology 244 (2013) 93–99
proposed a sound-assisted fluidized-bed filter afterburner for dust-laden
gas clean-up. Compared with when no acoustic field is used, an acoustic
field of 140 dB at 120 Hz doubled the time required to saturate the filter,
quadrupled the amount of fine particulate retained by the bed and dou-
bled the residence time of the fine particulates. The role of sound is relat-
ed to an enhanced adhesion of the fine particles to the surface of the
coarse particles associated with the oscillatory motion of particles as a
result of the acoustic field.
Fluidized-bed technology is less efficient at removing small parti-
cles; however, it is continuous in operation. Furthermore, it requires a
substantially uniform flow of gas. Any sudden surge of gas through
the fluidized bed can result in not only the previously contained par-
ticulates passing through the bed but also a portion of the bed gran-
ules itself being entrained in the gas, thus particle loading the gas
stream even more [5].
3.3. Granular moving bed
Moving beds are more efficient than fluidized beds at equal bed thick-
ness and material. In terms of flow direction of the entry gas and moving
granules, moving beds are categorized as cross-flow, co-current flow and
counter-current flow granular moving bed, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.
In moving bed cross-flow operations, as shown in Fig. 3(a),(b) and
(c), the filter bed is a vertical layer of granular material, held in place
by retaining grids or louvered walls. The dust-laden gas passes horizon-
tally through the granular layer while filter granules move downwards
and are removed from the bottom of the moving bed filter. There are
two approaches to handle bed media for moving granular bed filters
(MGBFs), once-through and recycling. The former uses pelletization
technology to generate pellets from solid waste materials from power
plants, and these pellets are used as a “once-through” filtering media,
thus avoiding costly and complex recycling equipment. The pelletizing
process also generates other environmentally acceptable products and
provides the potential to incorporate gas-phase contaminant sorbents
into the filtering media. As for the recycling media operation, granules
are purchased and exhibit good attrition resistance and performance
as filtering media. The granules from an MGBF bottom are cleaned in
a cyclonic collector or during a pneumatic transportation process before
being reintroduced into feeding points, where additional energy and
instrumentation are required [42]. A trommel screen system was pro-
posed by Chen et al. [43], employing a cylindrical separation device to
perform separation of undersized particulates from the filtration media.
The experimental results indicated that this system was suitable for a
moving granular bed filter to regenerate the filtration media.
Fig. 3. Schematic of cross-flow moving bed.
Fig. 4. Schematic of cross-flow moving bed with sub-louvers and schematic of count-flow
arrangement.
It is important to maintain a uniform flow through the filter media
without stagnant zones inside the bed. Stagnant zones of poor filter
medium lie in the area above the walls of the louvers. Problems of
wall corrosion, plaque, caking and agglomerations of the filter medi-
um can occur in these stagnant zones. Furthermore, stagnant zones
cause a permanent increase in the gas pressure drop in the filter
over time [3]. Flow patterns in a symmetric louver-walled granular
moving bed, as shown in Fig. 3(a), have been reported by Hsiau et
al. [5] and Kuo et al. [44]. Results indicate that granular bed flow in fil-
ter channels is influenced by the angle of the louvers and the vertical
spacing between neighboring louvers. The asymmetric louver config-
uration, as shown Fig. 3(b), causes asymmetric quasi-stagnant zones
but a symmetric central flowing core in the moving bed filter. For
both symmetric and asymmetric louvers, when the angle of the lou-
vers (steep-louvered wall) is small (e.g., 15°), the central flowing
core is the dominant flow region in the filter channel, and the stag-
nant zone is thin. However, in this case, dust particles entering with
flue gases may block the narrow gap between the louvers. When
the angle of louvers is large (e.g., 40°), the internal flow pattern of
the filter bed is more complicated, particularly during the beginning
stage of filter operation. Four different flow regions are observed: a
quasi-stagnant zone; a transition region; a central plug flow core of
nearly uniform velocity distribution and the left and right free surface
regions where gas flows in and out. Chou and Yang [45] reported that
a curved louvered wall can not only reduce the area of the quasi-
stagnant zone in the granular bed but also reduce the dynamic normal
stress on the louvered wall. A vertical plate placed in each stage in the
granular filter bed has been confirmed to effectively diminish the
quasi-stagnant zone adjacent to the louvered wall and reduce the wall
pressure pulsation [46]. Hsiau et al. [47] added flow-corrective elements
(central saddle roofs or horizontal tubes) in a granular moving bed with
louvered walls, as shown in Fig. 3(c). Compared with a bed with the lou-
vered walls without placement of flow-corrective elements, the
quasi-stagnant zones are effectively diminished with the new design.
Furthermore, dust particle collection efficiency is improved by adding
flow-corrective elements [19,48]. Dust cake formed on the surface of
granules has a significant influence on particles collection efficiency.
Chen and Hsiau [49,50] investigated the formation and growth of dust
cakes and dust cake compressibility of fine fly ashes on filters during
cross-flow filtration. It was found that an average increase of 1 mm in
thickness of cake made an increase of 0.686% in collection efficiency
[49]. A higher superficial velocity resulted in a more compacted dust
cake, i.e. a smaller cake porosity and a larger specific cake resistance,
which enhanced the particles collection efficiency [50].
Another design, as shown in Fig. 4(a), is created by placing sub-
louvers into the convergent channel between louvers to diminish the
stagnant zones, which was proposed by Hsiau et al. [51]. By changing
 G. Xiao et al. / Powder Technology 244 (2013) 93–99 97

Table 2 efficient use of medium-sized granules for a cross-flow granular moving

Characteristics of granule beds. bed [52]. For a certain superficial velocity, there is an optimum granule
Granular Advantages Disadvantages flow rate that achieves a high efficiency [19].
bed filters A counter-flow arrangement, as shown in Fig. 4(b), has been pro-
Fixed bed Collection efficiency Gas flow must be stopped for posed by Brown et al. [18]. In this design, granular material moving
exceeds 99%. cleaning from time to time. downward by gravity spills out of a centrally located dipleg to form an
Fluidized bed Operates continuously The collection efficiency is low interfacial region. Up to 86% particulate removal in the granular moving
with neglected pressure
bed filter occurs at this interface, where a prominent filter cake occa-
drop effect.
Granular High collection efficiency Large footprint of the equipment, sionally forms [53]. The lower edge of the filter cake is dispersed by
moving bed and continuous operation complex medium granules flow the downward flow of granular material, and the upper interface is cov-
and high throughputs of granular ered by a fresh layer of granular material cascading from the dipleg
material above the interface. The cyclonic flow moves downward through sta-
tors that are designed to straighten the flow and ensure a normal en-
trance of gas velocity through the interfacial region of the filter media.
the louver spacing LP, the louver angle θ1, inclination angle θ2, the louver The screen is intended to prevent the granular media from exiting
length L1 and length of sub-louvers L2, the sub-louver-system moving with the gas flow in case the upward gas velocity in the downcomer ex-
bed can be optimized to almost completely eliminate stagnant zones. ceeds the minimum fluidization velocity for the granules. The results of
According to Hsu et al. [52], an apparatus with LP = 340 mm, θ1 = the effect of the granular flow rate on the filtration efficiency of this
40°, θ1 = 25°, L1 = 218 mm and L2 = 160 mm was tested and was de- structure are contradictory. Brown et al. [18] concluded that the filtra-
termined to be the best design of the sub-louver systems. Investigating tion efficiency increased as the granular flow rate increased, whereas
the flow pattern of a sub-louver system moving bed showed that Yang et al. [54] reported that the granular flow rate had little effect on
sub-louvers arranged as shown in Fig. 4(a) have the most uniform veloc- the efficiency. El-Hedok et al. [55] explained the disagreement using a
ity distribution inside the louver channel [3]. A uniform entry of dirty gas critical granular residence time tg. Granular residence times below tg
flow results in not only a high particle collection efficiency but also would not be expected to show filtration efficiency dependent upon

Table 3
Medias used in granular bed filters with different operation modes.

Granules Diameter Operation Temperature Initial bed Flow rate Pressure drop Efficiency (%)
(mm) modes (K) depth (mm) (kg/h) (kPa)

Alumina and silica 3–3.5 CBGF [56] ~823 200–300 300–1200 ~2–~7 97–99.5+
Silica sand ~0.8 and 1.5 CGBF-CLPs [57] RT 25 – ~0.4–~1.2 and ~99–~99.6 and
~0.1–~0.9 ~98.5–~99.2
Zeolite, Cheakpea, 6, 9 and 16 Packed bed [23] RT 25, 40, 60, 150 0 0.43–~1.13, –
and Glass bead respectively ~0.07–33, 15–33
ZrO2 beads 0.3 and 0.8 Packed bed [24] RT 45.5 0 ~0.78 and ~3.4 ~90–~99 and ~40–~95
Sand and perlite 0.5–1 and 2–5 Dual-layer RT 150 0 ~2.1–~5.1 ~99.99
particles packed bed [25]
Sintered Bauxite 0.662 Panel bed [27] 823 – 0 ~500–~4500 ~100
Sand ~0.59–0.84 Panel bed [28] RT – – – 99.95+ and 99.99+
and 0.3–0.42
Angular sand, ~0.3–0.42, Packed bed [29] RT 63 0 ~2.3–~19.6, –
silicon carbide ~0.3–0.42 ~1.6– ~15.7 and –
and copper shot and 0.25–0.42 423 –, ~1.7– ~15.7 and –
588 ~2–~17, ~3.6–~17.6
and ~1.5–~13.7
Lapilli 2 Packed bed [58] RT 0 ~1–~2 ~86–~97
Silica sand ~0.7–0.84 FB [20] 313 210 0.5 m/sa – SiO2: 85–89 (4 μm)
0–80 (40 μm)
Al2O3: 40–60 (4 μm)
0–70 (40 μm)
Fe2O3: 65–98 (4 μm)
~95+ (40 μm)
573 210 SiO2: 83–99 (4 μm)
0 (40 μm)
Al2O3: 80–99 (4 μm)
0–60 (40 μm)
Fe2O3: 70–87 (4 μm)
94–99 (40 μm)
Silica sand ~0.7–0.84 FB [40] 309, 573, 673 210 0.57 m/sa – 0–80, 30–80, 50–88,
and 773 and 60–92
Silica sand and ~0.7–0.84 FB [35] 313–317 300–350 0.49 m/sa – 71–81 (both) and
activated carbon and ~1.2–~1.4 69–80 (Al2O3)
16–57 (SiO2)
Quartz sand – MGBF [48] 300–700 – 0–6.6 0.67–0.75 ~98.8–~99.5 for Al2O3
~98.6–~99.8 for char
Silica sand 2–4 MGBF [59] RT – 21.6, 27.6 ~0.07–~0.35 ~97.3–~99.4, ~98.2–~99.9
(cross-current) and 33.6 and 97.7–99.5
Glass bead 4 MGBF [19] RT – 12 ~3 ~99.7
(count-current)

CBGF is short for circulating bed granular bed filter. CGBF-CLPs is short for circulating granular bed filter with conical louver plates. RT is short for room temperature. FB is short for
fluidized bed. MGBF is short for moving granular bed filter.
a
Means gas velocity in FB.
98 G. Xiao et al. / Powder Technology 244 (2013) 93–99
granular flow rate, whereas higher granular residence times might
show a strong dependence on the granular flow rate.
Co-current and counter-current designs are similar in structure but
they differ in how the granules interact with particulate-laden gas
flow. In a co-current granular moving bed filter, the dirtiest gas is fil-
tered by the cleanest granular media, whereas the cleanest gas is fil-
tered by the dirtiest granules [56].
Granular moving bed filters are extremely promising in hot gas
cleaning operations up to 800 °C for high filtration efficiency. However,
the relatively large amount of equipment, complex, medium-sized
granules flow and high throughputs of granular material are drawbacks
of granular moving bed filters. Characteristics of granular bed filters are
summarized in Table 2.
4. Filtration media and performance comparison
Granules used in granular bed filters as filtration media are as im-
portant as the structure of the bed. The criteria for choosing granular
media are based on temperature resistance, thermal shock resistance,
mechanical strength and resistance to attrition and corrosion attack
[56]. Granules mentioned in literature and their performances are
summarized in Table 3.
As shown in Table 3, a fixed bed, i.e., packed bed and panel bed, has a
high collection efficiency but also a high pressure drop. In addition, the
pressure drop across the granule medium layer gradually increases
with operating time as more and more collected particles deposit on
the granules and form a cake. Thus, regular backflow is extremely im-
portant for a fixed bed. A fluidized bed operates continuously with a
negligible pressure. However, the collection efficiency is low, particular-
ly for small particles and is complex to operate. A granular moving bed
has the advantages of both the fixed bed's high collection efficiency
and the fluidized bed's continuous operation and may be the most
promising hot gas clean-up technology for commercial use. However,
more experimental studies at high temperatures (e.g., 600 °C and
above) are needed to evaluate its comprehensive performance.
5. Summary
Granular bed filters may be the most promising technology for
gasified gas clean-up at high temperatures. Granular bed filters use
low-cost filter media and operate at a reasonable pressure drop. Granu-
lar beds can be categorized as fixed bed, moving bed and fluidized bed
according to the operation mode. For a packed bed, filter media is im-
portant. Granules with a large diameter ensure a large dust capacity,
and small granules provide a high filtration efficiency. For a panel bed,
down-sloping louvers present a large total gas-entry sand face and ef-
fective renewal of gas-entry sand faces. Operation parameters, e.g., gas
velocity, temperature and filter media diameter are important for a flu-
idized bed, which has low collection efficiency. Granular moving beds
can be operated as cross-flow, co-current flow and counter-current
flow mode. Optimization of the structure of a granular moving bed pro-
vides the possibility of a high collection efficiency and convenient oper-
ation. Media that have good temperature resistance, thermal shock
resistance, mechanical strength and resistance to attrition and corrosion
attack are welcome in a granular bed. More studies at high tempera-
tures are needed to promote the commercial use of granular bed filters.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51276167), the
National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of
China (No.51125025), the National Basic Research Program of China
(No. 2010CB732200), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang
Province (No. Y12E060029), and the China International Cooperation
Project (No. 2011DFR60190).
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