Improvement of Fluidization Ability for Group A Powders by Fine Powder Additives

Xiaowei Zhang, The University of Western Ontario

Abstract

Group A powders are widely utilized in the industry because of the great quality of fluidization, which can be affected by the fine content. This project investigates the feasibility that employing the fine powders (≤ 20 μm) as additives to further improve the fluidization ability of Group A powders. Three additives, Coal-15, GB-6, and SiO₂-5 are added into FCC-76, based on various volume fractions. The minimum fluidization velocity (U_mf), bed expansion ratio (BER), and dense phase expansion ratio (DER) are tested to evaluate the quality of fluidization. Coal-15 can slightly improve the fluidization quality. High content of GB-6 can make the mixture obtain some characteristics of Group C/A powders. While after adding 13.5% SiO₂-5, BER and DER separately enhance 19.4% and 10.3%, besides, there is a 28.8% decrease in U_mf. The improvement of Group A powders on the fluidization has potential industrial values, especially in improving the gas-solid reaction conversion.