Minimum Fluidization Velocities of Mixtures of Palm Oil Residues and Sand

Understanding and knowledge on the hydrodynamics of fluidization is vital in obtaining an efficient fluidized bed system. The minimum fluidization of mixtures of palm oil residues with inert material (silica sand) in a cold gas fluidized bed has been studied. Oil palm residues consist of palm pressed fibre and palm kernel shell were used as the feed material in a 150mm internal diameter fluidized bed test rig with 1000mm in height. The percentage of palm oil residues in the mixture were: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% by weight. It is proven that the appropriate design value of the superficial gas velocity to be used in the operation of biomass gasifier is to take Ucf twice the Umf for mixture of palm kernel shell with silica sand and thrice the Umf for mixture of palm pressed fibre with silica sand. The experimental Umf values were compared to several correlations established by previous researches and it was found that Bilbao et al., 1987 was suitable to be used to predict Umf for binary mixture of palm pressed fibre with silica sand.