Sand attrition in conical spouted beds

A study was carried out on the attrition in conical spouted beds using two sands with different properties for several bed heights and gas flow rates. Furthermore, the influence of a draft tube was studied at ambient and high temperatures. The main objective was to acquire knowledge on the attrition of sand beds for biomass pyrolysis in a pilot plant provided with a conical spouted bed reactor. A first-order kinetic equation is proposed for sand attrition in a conical spouted bed at room temperature. The predicted attrition rate constant depends exponentially on excess air velocity over that for minimum spouting. Both the draft tube and temperature increase contribute to reduction of attrition.

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► Air velocity is the most influential parameter over both attrition kinetics and mass loss.
► The use of draft tube causes a significant reduction of attrition in spouted beds.
► Attrition decreases as temperature is increased due to the less vigorous contact.