subject: What is Fluid Bed Technology [print this page] What is Fluid Bed Technology What is Fluid Bed Technology
Major industrial processes like heating, cooling and drying of free flowing bulk goods such as chemicals, fertilizers, sugars, biosolids, plastics and many other types of crystals, powders and grains require a super efficient technology in order to get an optimum result that would help improve business productivity.
In choosing the appropriate technology to handle and process these bulk solids materials, it is important that you have a clear understanding of the nature and behavior of each materials for the purpose of proper handling and effective processing. The method or the technology that we employed in the processing of these industrial materials is an important factor that greatly affects the quality of the final products.
Today, we can find a lot of innovative technologies and new methods for heating, cooling and drying of bulk goods in a more effective and energy efficient manner compared to the traditional ways. But since these technologies were not created equal im terms of efficiency, design features, and processes, we can find some them inefficient and not planet friendly.
The fluid bed technology is one of the most common method for cooling, heating and drying of bulk solids materials that has been employed by several international facilities for various bulk solids applications. This method uses a large volumes of air to cool, heat and dry the bulk solids materials through a perforated distributor plate where the air passes and blown to the a layer or bed of solids to fluidize the materials. The air has a direct contact with products which serves as the heat exchange medium that adds and remove heat from the process.
For instance, to cool a bulk material a fluid bed cooler is needed where ambient air is taken in through the large fans. But, in most climates, the air needs to undergo a chilling process before it was blown directly to the products. After then, the air from the bed coolers will be discharged using an emissions stack.
However, processing bulk solids materials using the fluid bed technology poses some inherent problems like large quantity of dusts and emmisions, high energy requirements and other process issues like subsequent spoilage and agglomeration. Since this method uses a huge amount of air to cool, dry, and heat bulk materials, the process results to a high emissions which can cause some health and environmental issues. Furthermore, the processes and other equipment involve in the fluid bed technology like the chilling process and large horsepower fans have a high energy requirements.
On the other hand, before employing the technology to be use in our business processes we should always consider the specific needs of our business and understand the nature of the materials to handle in order to get a superior bulk solids quality.
