A novel induction heating fluidized bed reactor: Its design and applications in high temperature screening tests with solid feedstocks and prediction of defluidization state

A novel mini induction heating fluidized bed reactor (IHFBR) is introduced which was developed to carry out screening tests of high temperature reactions up to 1500 degrees C particularly for solid feedstocks. Despite conventional mini reactors, this reactor mimics real scenario of solid feeding in industrial reactors: cold feedstock is injected within 1 s from a lift tube, then particles reach reaction temperature in less than 5 s in a reaction zone. The lift tube (9.5 cm diameter) is also the gas distributor of the fluidized bed (2.5 cm diameter) so that the bed is completely fluidized with uniform gas distribution. Beside facilities to perform tests in a fluidized bed, another important feature of this reactor is prediction of the defluidization state in the bed. Not only reproducible data are generated, but also many tests can be conveniently carried out, that is, one test per hour. (c) 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 1507-1523, 2015