Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.89, No.5, 1217-1227, 2011
EVALUATION OF THE SPRAY STABILITY ON LIQUID INJECTION IN GAS-SOLID FLUIDIZED BEDS BY PASSIVE VIBROMETRIC METHODS
For some operations, such as fluid coking, gas atomised liquid feed must be injected via spray nozzles into gas-solid fluidized beds. A stable or non-pulsating spray with a controlled droplet size is desired. The spray stability of various gas-liquid pre-mixer and nozzle combinations was determined in open air conditions through analysis of vibration measurements on the upstream conduit with an accelerometer correlated to physical downstream spray measurements. The open air vibration measurements did not correspond to vibration measurements while spraying into a fluidized bed due to external vibrations from the fluidisation. The vibration measurements, however, can provide a relative ranking of spray stability of various gas-solid pre-mixer and nozzle combinations for similar fluidisation conditions. In addition, the gas to liquid ratio (GLR) and the gas properties were all found to affect spray stability.