title: Advancement of an Infra-Red Technique for Whole-Field Concentration Measurements in Fluidized Beds.
abstract: For a better understanding and description of the mass transport phenomena in dense multiphase gas-solids systems such as fluidized bed reactors, detailed and quantitative experimental data on the concentration profiles is required, which demands advanced non-invasive concentration monitoring techniques with a high spatial and temporal resolution. A novel technique based on the selective detection of a gas component in a gas mixture using infra-red properties has been further developed. The first stage development was carried out using a very small sapphire reactor and CO₂ as tracer gas. Although the measuring principle was demonstrated, the real application was hindered by the small reactor dimensions related to the high costs and difficult handling of large sapphire plates. In this study, a new system has been developed, that allows working at much larger scales and yet with higher resolution. In the new system, propane is used as tracer gas and quartz as reactor material. In this study, a thorough optimization and calibration of the technique is presented which is subsequently applied for whole-field measurements with high temporal resolution. The developed technique allows the use of a relatively inexpensive configuration for the measurement of detailed concentration fields and can be applied to a large variety of important chemical engineering topics.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Process Intensification, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70, 5612 AP Eindhoven, The Netherlands. j.a.medrano.jimenez@tue.nl.
authors.forename: Jose A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Medrano
authors.affiliation: Chemical Process Intensification, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70, 5612 AP Eindhoven, The Netherlands. n.c.a.d.nooijer@tue.nl.
authors.forename: Niek C A
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: de Nooijer
authors.affiliation: Chemical Process Intensification, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70, 5612 AP Eindhoven, The Netherlands. f.gallucci@tue.nl.
authors.forename: Fausto
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gallucci
authors.affiliation: Chemical Process Intensification, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70, 5612 AP Eindhoven, The Netherlands. m.v.sintannland@tue.nl.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Sint Annaland
keywords: IR; concentration polarization; fluidized bed membrane reactor; mass transfer