Study of ebullated bed fluid dynamics

The fluid dynamics occurring in a coal liquefaction reactor is measured and compared with cold flow fluidization results. Catalyst bed expansions and gas holdups are higher in the Process Development Unit (PDU) than those observed in the cold flow tests for slurries having the same nominal viscosity. Comparison of PDU results with cold flow results shows that the bulk of the operating reactor gas flow lies in the ideal bubbly regime. Existence of churn turbulent behavior during these two experiments is consistent with trends observed in earlier cold flow experiments. Two and three phase fluidization experiments are carried out. Bed expansion is primarily a function of slurry velocity, with gas velocity having only a weak effect. A viscometer is adapted for measurement of the viscosity of coal slurries at high temperature and pressure. A significant degree of backmixing occurs in the H-Coal system.