An experimental investigation on solid acceleration length in the riser of a long circulating fluidized bed

Systematic experimental work was conducted to investigate the solid acceleration length in a 16 m long circulating fluidized bed riser with fluid cracking catalyst particles over a wide range of operating conditions. A more feasible method is proposed to determine the acceleration length from the measured axial profiles of pressure gradient (or apparent solid holdup). With this new method and large amount of experimental data, a clear picture on the variation of the acceleration length with both solid circulating rate and superficial gas velocity is obtained. It is found that the acceleration length increases generally with increasing solid flow rate and/or decreasing gas velocity. However, the trend in variation of the acceleration length with operating conditions are quite different in different operation ranges. Reasonable explanations are suggested for the observed variation patterns of acceleration length.