Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Liquid-Solid Contact On Thermal Cracking Of Heavy Hydrocarbons In A Mechanically Fluidized Reactor, Mitesh C. Chaudhari

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of the thesis was to study the effect of liquid-solid contact on the thermal cracking of heavy hydrocarbons carried out in Fluid Cokers. The research has been carried out using a Mechanically Fluidized Reactor (MFR) in which the operating conditions of the Fluid Coking^TM reactions can be simulated and monitored. The first part of the research, aimed at investigating the effect of agitation on liquid-solid contact, which was carried out by changing the rotation speed of the agitator of the MFR for both non-reactive as well as for reactive systems. In both situations, it was observed that …

Simultaneous Particle Agglomeration And Attrition In A High Temperature Fluidized Bed, Mithun Saha

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Fluid Coking^TM is a major refining process to upgrade heavy crude oil or bitumen from oil sands. In Fluid Coking^TM bitumen is atomized with steam and sprayed inside a high temperature fluidized bed of coke particles where it thermally cracks into smaller molecules. Fluid Coking^TM is a carbon rejection process as solid carbon residues are formed during fragmentation into lighter hydrocarbon vapors. New coke deposits over existing coke particles and, consequently, the particle size increases. In addition, particles agglomeration occurs when the injected liquid does not disperse uniformly on individual hot coke particles but reaches, instead, local …

Liquid Distribution From Industrial Scale Spray Jets In Fluidized Beds, Mohammadali Zirgachianzadeh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Liquid injections via spray nozzles are used in fluidized bed reactors such as Fluid Cokers. In such industrial processes, in order to maximize the product yields it is required to optimize the performance of the nozzle. Moreover parts of the bed might become defluidized, bogged, due to high liquid load. Then optimizing the performance of the nozzle and local bed bogging detection is the primary research objectives for this thesis work.

The first part of the research work was focused on developing a novel method employing electrical conductance to characterize the liquid distribution in a large scale fluid bed of …

Developing Novel Methods To Characterize Liquid Dispersion In A Fluidized Bed, Masoumeh Farkhondehkavaki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The performance of several important industrial processes, such as fluid coking or fluid catalytic cracking, is dependent on the good distribution of liquid feed sprayed into a fluidized bed of hot inert or catalytic particles, respectively.

Liquid injected into a fluidized bed is distributed in three different ways: (i) free moisture, or liquid coating individual particles; (ii) wet micro-agglomerates, which are fluidized; and (iii) wet macro-agglomerates, which settle to the bottom of the bed. This study develops and evaluates various methods for the determination of this moisture.

In the study using electrical techniques, two different kinds of electrodes geometries are …