Fluidized Bed - Application

Application

Fluidized beds are used as a technical process which has the ability to promote high levels of contact between gases and solids. In a fluidized bed a characteristic set of basic properties can be utilised, indispensable to modern process and chemical engineering, these properties include:

• Extremely high surface area contact between fluid and solid per unit bed volume
• High relative velocities between the fluid and the dispersed solid phase.
• High levels of intermixing of the particulate phase.
• Frequent particle-particle and particle-wall collisions.

Taking an example from the food processing industry: fluidized beds are used to accelerate freezing in some IQF tunnel freezers. IQF means Individually Quick Frozen, or freezing unpackaged separate pieces. These fluidized bed tunnels are typically used on small food products like peas, shrimp or sliced vegetables, and may use cryogenic or vapor-compression refrigeration. The fluid used in fluidized beds may also contain a fluid of catalytic type; that's why it is also used to catalyse the chemical reaction and also to improve the rate of reaction.