China PARTICUOLOGY

The vibration method represents a practical method for the measurement of adhesion forces and adhesion force distributions. This method causes sinusoidally alternating stresses and yields detachment and contact forces between particles and substrate of the same order of magnitude. Alternating contact forces of the vibration method can cause an adhesion force intensification through flattening of asperities. The measuring principle of the vibration method and the analysis of experimental results are described in the article. Normal adhesion forces (pull-off forces) are measured using the vibration method and the colloidal probe technique. The results of both methods show good agreement for small particle sizes. The influence of the detachment force direction is shown by comparing tangential and normal adhesion forces measured using particle reentrainment in a turbulent air flow and the vibration method, respectively. The surface roughness of the substrate and the relative humidity are shown to significantly influence the measured adhesion forces. For the calculation of the adhesion forces, an approach by Rabinovich was combined with approximations of plastic micro asperity flattening. The Rabinovich approach accounts for roughness effects on the van der Waals force by incorporating the rms roughness of the interacting surfaces. rms-values of the particles and substrates were measured with atomic force microscopy at different scanning areas.

A technique is presented for creating surface-adhering dust layers under defined conditions, and characterizing and stressing the layers created. The procedure described is shown to be suitable for the quantitative evaluation of the effects of different parameters such as particle size, porosity and surface roughness etc. on the stability of particle layers.

Particle interactions are of crucial importance in many applications including fluidized beds and other powder handling systems. The present contribution discusses how surface properties of the particles can be determined in order to get quantitative information on particle interactions. For instance, we apply adsorption experiments in order to get information on dispersive and polar interactions. These measurements are complemented by careful roughness measurements as well as FTIR-spectroscopy and TG-MS analysis. Adhesion force measurements with AFM and ultracentrifuge on well defined ideal as well as heterogeneous surfaces led to the introduction of three generic types of adhesion force distributions: monomodal Weibull, bimodal Weibull and lognormal. The influence of roughness and adsorbed layers on adhesion are shown. In addition, we discuss important aspects of the dynamic nature of the adhesion/detachment process by means of MD-simulations.

In the '90s DEM simulation research was successful in exploring its potential in the simulation of fluidization phenomena and in its application to the design of fluidized-bed processes. Nevertheless, not much progress has been made regarding the realistic treatment of collision processes that are critical in determining macroscopic mode of fluidization. All through the second half of the '90s, the author investigated/demonstrated the issue by introducing different surface interactions caused by formation of liquid and/or solid bridges, van der Waals force and the existence of surface roughness. In the first part of the presentation these are to be summarized and the tasks remaining are discussed. In the second part, are presented the results from a newly developed force-deformation meter to demonstrate the significance of the surface roughness and its elasto-plastic characteristics.

A basic method to calculate van der Waals dispersion force distributions for submicron superquadric particles in particle-wall systems is presented. The force distribution is achieved by rotating particles through a large number of arbitrary spatial orientations, each time keeping constant the contact distance to the wall surface while calculating the dispersion force. To accomplish this, the use of 2D particle shape suffices, that is, through using an inter-dimensional function, which has been determined previously. A further development of the method within digital image analysis may lead to possible applications to forecasting the macroscopic properties of particle systems, for example, flowability, agglomeration behavior or dispersibility. For small ranges of superquadric particle shapes, each with a different size, the way from determining the inter-dimensional function up to applying image analysis is shown in an example.

The pressure drop across a laboratory-scale catalyst packed bed with mechanical failure of catalyst pellets has been examined. It was found that the increased pressure drop can be described by a simplified model deduced from Ergun's equation. The pressure drop is determined mainly by the term of viscous energy loss.

The unique characteristics of gas-solids two-phase flow and fluidization in terms of the flow structures and the apparent behavior of particles and fluid-particle interactions are closely linked to physical properties of the particles, operating conditions and bed configurations. Fluidized beds behave quite differently when solid properties, gas velocities or vessel geometries are varied. An understanding of hydrodynamic changes and how they, in turn, influence the transfer and reaction characteristics of chemical and thermal operations by variations in gas-solid contact, residence time, solid circulation and mixing and gas distribution is very important for the proper design and scale-up of fluidized bed reactors. In this paper, rather than attempting a comprehensive survey, we concentrate on examining some important positive and negative impacts of particle sizes, bubbles, clusters and column walls on the physical and chemical aspects of chemical reactor performance from the engineering application point of view with the aim of forming an adequate concept for guiding the design of multiphase fluidized bed chemical reactors.

One unique phenomenon associated with particle size is that fluidized bed behavior does not always vary monotonically with changing the average particle size. Different behaviors of particles with difference sizes can be well understood by analyzing the relationship between particle size and various forces. For both fine and coarse particles, too narrow a distribution is generally not favorable for smooth fluidization. A too wide size distribution, on the other hand, may lead to particle segregation and high particle elutriation. Good fluidization performance can be established with a proper size distribution in which inter-particle cohesive forces are reduced by the lubricating effect of fine particles on coarse particles for Type A, B and D particles or by the spacing effect of coarse particles or aggregates for Type C powders.

Much emphasis has been paid to the negative impacts of bubbles, such as gas bypassing through bubbles, poor bubble-to-dense phase heat & mass transfer, bubble-induced large pressure fluctuations, process instabilities, catalyst attrition and equipment erosion, and high entrainment of particles induced by erupting bubbles at the bed surface. However, it should be noted that bubble motion and gas circulation through bubbles, together with the motion of particles in bubble wakes and clouds, contribute to good gas and solids mixing. The formation of clusters can be attributed to the movement of trailing particles into the low-pressure wake region of leading particles or clusters. On one hand, the existence of down-flowing clusters induces strong solid back-mixing and non-uniform radial distributions of particle velocities and holdups, which is undesirable for chemical reactions. On the other hand, the formation of clusters creates high solids holdups in the riser by inducing internal solids circulations, which are usually beneficial for increasing concentrations of solid catalysts or solid reactants.

Wall effects have widely been blamed for complicating the scale-up and design of fluidized-bed reactors. The decrease in wall friction with increasing the column diameter can significantly change the flow patterns and other important characteristics even under identical operating conditions with the same gas and particles. However, internals, which can be considered as a special wall, have been used to improve the fluidized bed reactor performance.

Generally, desirable and undesirable dual characteristics of interaction between particles and fluid are one of the important natures of multiphase flow. It is shown that there exists a critical balance between those positive and negative impacts. Good fluidization quality can always be achieved with a proper choice of right combinations of particle size and size distribution, bubble size and wall design to alleviate the negative impacts.

A theory of nonfluidized gas-solids flow, which combines the theory of multiphase flow with the mechanics of particulate media, was proposed on the basis of understanding that the particles contact each other, solids and gas are in movement, and the drag force on the particles caused by interstitial gas flow is similar to gravity force having the property of mass force. Then this theory was verified by experiments on vertical and inclined moving beds, and was applied to calculation and design of equipment and devices with moving beds, such as pneumatic moving bed transport, dipleg, V-value, L-valve, orifice flow, and arching prevention. It can be used to guide the design and operation of moving beds and fixed beds.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be fluidized in the form of fluidlike agglomerates made of many three-dimensional sub-agglomerates, having a multi-stage agglomerate (MSA) structure and containing large amounts of twisting CNTs of micrometer magnitude.

In China more than two-thirds of available coal reserves are in arid areas, where, to beneficiate the run-of-mine coal, there is not enough water resource required by conventional processing. Developing efficient dry beneficiation technology is of great significance for efficient coal utilization in China, notably the clean coal technology (CCT). The dry coal benefi-ciation technology with air-dense medium fluidized bed utilizes air-solid suspension as beneficiating medium whose density is consistent for beneficiation, similar in principle to the wet dense medium beneficiation using liquid-solid suspension as separating medium. The heavy portion in feedstock whose density is higher than the density of the fluidized bed will sink, whereas the lighter portion will float, thus stratifying the feed materials according to their density.

In order to obtain efficient dry separation in air-dense medium fluidized bed, stable fluidization with well dispersed micro-bubbles must be achieved to ensure low viscosity and high fluidity. The pure buoyancy of beneficiation materials plays a main role in fluidized bed, and the displaced distribution effect should be restrained. The displaced distribution effects include viscosity displaced distribution effect and movement displaced distribution effect. The former is caused by viscosity of the fluidized bed. It decreases with increasing air flow velocity. Movement displaced distribution effect will be large when air flow rate is too low or too high. If medium particle size distribution and air flow are well controlled, both displaced distribution effects could be controlled effectively. A beneficiation displaced distribution model may be used to optimize beneficiation of feedstock with a wide particle size distribution and multiple components in the fluidized bed. The rheological characteristics of fluidized beds were studied using the falling sphere method. Experimental results indicated that the fluidized bed behaves as a Bingham fluid. The plastic viscosity and yield stress can be obtained by measurement of the terminal settling velocity of spheres and linear regression of the experimental data. Both plastic viscosity and yield stress increase with increasing size of the fluidized particles. The drag coefficient can be calculated with favorable agreement with experimental data.

The first dry coal beneficiation plant with air-dense medium fluidized bed was established by CUMT with an output of 320000 t·a^-1 and a probable error Ep value up to 0.05 was achieved. The plant was accepted by the Chinese government in June, 1994. Since then, new applications have been found including a 700000 t·a^-1 dry coal beneficiation plant put up for commercial testing. To realize coal dry beneficiation of full size range of 300~0 mm, further research on dry coal ben-eficiation of different size fractions has been under way at the Mineral Processing Research Center of CUMT, leading to the following results:

• Dry beneficiation technology with a vibrated air-dense medium fluidized bed for fine coal of size fraction 6~0.5 mm

Ash content was reduced from 16.57% to 8.35%, with yield up to 80.20% and Ep value up to 0.065.

• Coal dry beneficiation technology with a deep air-dense medium fluidized bed for > 50 mm coal

An Ep value up to 0.02 was achieved. This technology is of great value for waste removal from 300~50 mm large feedstock, especially for big surface mines in China.

• Coal triboelectric cleaning technology for < 1 mm pulverized Coal

Coal is comminuted down to 320 mesh (0.043 mm) to fully liberate the embedded minerals, yielding an ultra-low ash coal (less than 2%). Currently a pilot system with triboelectric cleaning has successfully passed technical appraisal.

• Three-product beneficiation technology with dual-density fluidized bed

This technology yields three products: clean coal, middling and tailing, with the following typical results: Ep value of 0.06~0.09 for the upper layer with a density of 1.5~1.54 g·cm^-3 and Ep value of 0.09~0.11 for the lower layer with density of 1.84~1.9 g·cm^-3.

An optimum design approach to reverse-flow cyclones based on the concept of optimizing cyclone dimensions is introduced in this paper. This approach involves optimizing cyclone dimensions by categories, calculating cyclone performance by correlating similitude numbers and optimizing the combination of four cyclone parameters, D, K_A, and v_i, which has been proven to be applicable not only for single-stage cyclone, but also for multistage cyclone separators. Applications of the designed cyclones in FCC units and acrylonitrile reactors are also presented.

A general theory on charges relaxation process in particle-fluid systems is introduced in this article. The method to derive analytical solutions for the charge relaxation equation is illustrated, and some respects for this theory are discussed in detail.

Interaction between two spheres with an interstitial fluid is essential in Discrete Element modeling for simulating the behaviors of "wet" particulate materials. In this paper the interaction between two spheres with an interstitial Power-law fluid was approximately resolved as normal and tangential interactive models respectively, for which the governing equations were simplified on the basis of Reynolds approximation. These equations were then solved analytically together with the boundary conditions to obtain the pressure distributions for each individual model, and eventually solutions of the viscous squeeze force and the tangential viscous resistance were obtained, which provide a set of solu-tions for implementing into DEM code or other purposes.

The multi-scale structures of complex flows in chemical engineering have been great challenges to the design and scaling of such systems, and multi-scale modeling is the natural way in response. Particle methods (PMs) are ideal constituents and powerful tools of multi-scale models, owing to their physical fidelity and computational simplicity. Especially, pseudo-particle modeling (PPM, Ge & Li, 1996; Ge & Li, 2003) is most suitable for molecular scale flow prediction and exploration of the origin of multi-scale structures; macro-scale PPM (MaPPM, Ge & Li, 2001) and similar models are advantageous for meso-scale simulations of flows with complex and dynamic discontinuity, while the lattice Boltzmann model is more competent for homogeneous media in complex geometries; and meso-scale methods such as dissipative particle dynamics are unique tools for complex fluids of uncertain properties or flows with strong thermal fluctuations. All these methods are favorable for seamless interconnection of models for different scales.

However, as PMs are not originally designed as either tools for complexity or constituents of multi-scale models, further improvements are expected. PPM is proposed for microscopic simulation of particle-fluid systems as a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) and direct simulation Monte-Carlo (DSMC). The collision dynamics in PPM is identical to that of hard-sphere MD, so that mass, momentum and energy are conserved to machine accuracy. However, the collision detection procedure, which is most time-consuming and difficult to be parallelized for hard-sphere MD, has been greatly simplified to a procedure identical to that of soft-sphere MD. Actually, the physical model behind such a treatment is essentially different from MD and is more similar to DSMC, but an intrinsic difference is that in DSMC the collisions follow designed statistical rules that are reflection of the real physical processes only in very limited cases such as dilute gas.

PPM is ideal for exploring the mechanism of complex flows ab initio. In final analysis, the complexity of flow behavior is shaped by two components on the micro-scale: the relative displacements and interactions of the numerous molecules. Adding to the generality of the characteristics of complex system as described by Li and Kwauk (2003), we notice that complex structures or behaviors are most probably observed when these two components are competitive and hence they must compromise, as in the case of emulsions and the so-called soft-matter that includes most bio-systems. When either displacement or interaction is dominant, as in the case of dilute gas or solid crystals, respectively, complexity is much less spectacular. Most PMs consist explicitly of these two components, which is operator splitting in a numerical sense, but it is physically more meaningful and concise in PPM.

The properties of the pseudo-particle fluid are in good conformance to typical simple gas (Ge et al., 2003; Ge et al., 2005). The ability of PPM to describe the dynamic transport process on the micro-scale in heterogeneous particle-fluid systems has been demonstrated in recent simulations (Ge et al., 2005). Especially, the method has been employed to study the temporal evolution of the stability criterion in the energy minimization multi-scale model (Li & Kwauk, 1994), which confirms its monotonously asymptotic decreasing as the model has assumed (Zhang et al., 2005). Massive parallel processing is also practiced for simulating particle-fluid systems in PPM, indicating an optimistic prospect to elevate the computational limitations on their wider applications, and exploring deeper underlying mechanism in complex particle-fluid systems.

This paper describes the use of overlapping grids for the calculation of flow around single and multiple particle configurations at the micro scale. The basic equations for calculation are those for conservation of mass and momentum which are solved using a common Finite-Volume formulation. The hydrodynamic particle-particle and particle-wall interaction can be calculated by using an overlapping or Chimera grid scheme. With the grid structuring procedure it is possible to use simple and structured grids around the particles and the overall main grid geometry. The particle grids are lapped over the main grid such that they can move independently after each time step without remeshing the whole geometry. The paper gives results for the validation of the code developed for general test cases, for a rotating ellipsoid in simple shear flow, the flow around particles attached to a wall, the motion of a particle in the vicinity of a wall and some results for the flow through a packed bed configuration.

A new procedure was developed for estimating the effective collision diameter of an aggregate composed of primary particles of any size. The coagulation coefficient of two oppositely charged particles was measured experimentally and compared with classic Fuchs theory, including a new method to account for particle non-sphericity. A second set of experiments were performed on well-defined nanoparticle aggregates at different stages of sintering, i.e. from the aggregate to the fully sintered stage. Here, electrical mobility was used to characterize the particle drag. The aggregates are being built from two different size-fractionated nanoparticle aerosols, the non-aggregated particles are discarded by an electrofilter and then they are passed through a furnace at concentrations low enough not to induce coagulation.

While science continues to extend to two extremes — micro-scale towards dimensions even smaller than elemental particles and mega-scale even beyond the universe, one recognizes that reductionism is not sufficient to solve many problems we encounter in engineering, which are likely characterized by nonlinearity, nonequilibrium and dissipative multi-scale structures. On the other hand, the common features of these nonlinear systems, such as bifurcation, state multiplicity and self-organization, have attracted much attention, leading to the approaches of the so-called complexity science which has become a focus not only in natural science and engineering science, but also in social science.

However, no effective methodology has been established to understand these complex systems, though noticeable progress has been achieved in studying these systems, such as particle-fluid multi-phase systems. Multi-scale methodology has been considered as a promising methodology to tackle complex systems due to its capability in correlating phenomena at different scales. In this presentation, we shall review the development of the multi-scale methodology and its applications to particle-fluid systems, elucidating the essential relevance of complex systems and the challenging problems in chemical engineering.

Multi-scale structure is considered to be the focus in studying complex systems, particularly, correlation between phenomena at different scales, compromise between different dominant mechanisms, coupling between spatial and temporal structural changes and critical phenomena occurring in these systems — these are the four critical issues in understanding complex systems. We first propose that by analyzing particle-fluid systems complex systems can be formulated as a multi-objective variational problem. Such an analytical multi-scale method will be reviewed in particular by analyzing the above four critical issues and by showing its 20-year development at IPE from a rough idea to modeling approaches, softwares and finally to industrial applications as well as its extension to different chemical and physical systems. The strategy of "from the particular to the general" in developing this multi-scale methodology is emphasized and challenges to mathematicians and physicists are identified to show the necessity of transdisciplinary cooperation. This presentation will be concluded by prospects and suggestions.

Dense gas-particle flows are encountered in a variety of industrially important processes for large scale production of fuels, fertilizers and base chemicals. The scale-up of these processes is often problematic and is related to the intrinsic complexities of these flows which are unfortunately not yet fully understood despite significant efforts made in both academic and industrial research laboratories. In dense gas-particle flows both (effective) fluid-particle and (dissipative) particle-particle interactions need to be accounted for because these phenomena to a large extent govern the prevailing flow phenomena, i.e. the formation and evolution of heterogeneous structures. These structures have significant impact on the quality of the gas-solid contact and as a direct consequence thereof strongly affect the performance of the process. Due to the inherent complexity of dense gas-particles flows, we have adopted a multi-scale modeling approach in which both fluid-particle and particle-particle interactions can be properly accounted for. The idea is essentially that fundamental models, taking into account the relevant details of fluid-particle (lattice Boltzmann model) and particle-particle (discrete particle model) interactions, are used to develop closure laws to feed continuum models which can be used to compute the flow structures on a much larger (industrial) scale. Our multi-scale approach (see Fig.1) involves the lattice Boltzmann model, the discrete particle model, the continuum model based on the kinetic theory of granular flow, and the discrete bubble model. In this paper we give an overview of the multi-scale modeling strategy, accompanied by illustrative computational results for bubble formation. In addition, areas which need substantial further attention will be highlighted.

Meso-scale structures existing in the form of particle-rich clusters, streamers or strands in circulating fluidized beds, and of ascending bubble plumes and descending liquid-rich vortices in bubble columns and slurry-bed reactors, as commonly observed, have played an important role in the macro-scale behavior of particle-fluid systems. These meso-scale struc-tures span a wide range of length and time scales, and their origin, evolution and influence are still far from being well understood.

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of computer simulation of particle-fluid systems based on computa-tional fluid dynamic (CFD) models. However, strictly speaking these models are far from mature and the complex nature of particle-fluid systems arising from the meso-scale structures has been posing great challenges to investigators. The reason may be that the current two-fluid models (TFM) are derived either from continuum mechanics by using different kinds of averaging techniques for the conservation equations of single-phase flow, or from the kinetic theory of gases in which the assumption of molecular chaos is employed, thereby losing sight of the meso-scale heterogeneity at the scale of computational cells and leading to inaccurate calculation of the interaction force between particles and fluids. For example, the overall drag force for particles in a cell is usually calculated from the empirical Wen & Yu/Ergun correlations, which should be suspected since these correlations were originally derived from homogeneous systems.

Schemes to solve this problem for gas-particles systems may be classified into four categories. First, one could capture the detailed meso-scale structure information at the cell scale by employing the so-called direct numerical simulation (DNS) (Hu, 1996), the pseudo-particle modeling (PPM) (Ge & Li, 2003), or the Lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) to track the interface between gas and particles. Second, refinement of the computational meshes may reduce the heterogeneity to some extent and may be capable of capturing some meso-scale heterogeneity though there still exists some argument about the physical rationality of this approach such as the treatment of particle phase as a continuum while fining the meshes. Third, it is generally agreed that a cascade description, viz. extracting the closure correlations for TFM from microscopic simulations such as PPM and LBM (van der Hoef et al., 2004), can suggest a practical way to explore the multi-scale heterogeneity. Although the above three schemes are logical and fundamental, they are generally difficult to implement at present due to the complexity of the models or the enormous computational cost. The fourth scheme we adopted in this study is the so-called energy-minimization multi-scale (EMMS) model which seems to be a simple yet reasonable approach at the moment.

In the present approach, a "structure" model is established to describe the meso-scale heterogeneity through the definition of eight "structure parameters" and the resolution of structure involving a particle-rich dense cluster phase and a gas-rich dilute phase. Gas-solid interaction is also resolved into that between gas and particles inside both the dense cluster phase and the dilute phase, and that between the cluster phase and the dilute phase. This means that the drag force for the dense cluster phase includes two parts, namely, bypassing drag (k_i) and permeating drag (k_c) as depicted in Fig.1. We found that the absolute value of the difference (Δk) between k_c and k_i could be employed to evaluate the extent of the system heterogeneity. On the basis of this structure model, the average acceleration (a) induced by gas-solid interactions can be obtained, and then the average drag coefficient (β) for the two-fluid model can be calculated. Calculation results show that the computed value of β with the EMMS model is much less than that with the Wen & Yu/Ergun correlations, which is in reasonable agreement with conclusions derived from experiments. We further simplified this model by assuming that the dense phase voidage (∊_c) is a constant because the direct incorporation of this new model into the two-fluid model is difficult at present due to computational cost resulting from the iterative process and certain limitations of this model stemming from its original derivation from the global fluidized bed system. With the Ug and Gs for the global system as the input parameters, we can calculate β for each specified ∊ and thereby obtain the correlation of correction factor ω (∊) as a function of ∊. Implanting this correlation into each cell and employing the local slip velocity and voidage, β for each cell can thus be obtained.

The simulation is performed for a FCC riser by combining the two-fluid model with this EMMS-based drag model and the Wen & Yu/Ergun correlations respectively. Comparison of the simulation results shows that the EMMS-based drag model produces more reasonable results than the Wen & Yu/Ergun correlations. The former shows its improvement in predicting the solids entrainment rate, the meso-scale heterogeneous structure involving clusters or strands, and the radial and axial voidage distributions. For the latter, the simulated flow structure is homogeneous and no clusters are observed, and the predicted solid entrainment rate is too much larger than experimental measurements. We also employ different approaches to predict the occurrence of choking, indicating that this EMMS-based drag model has the ability to capture this important phenomenon in CFB systems. For the details, the interested reader is referred to the work of Li and Kwauk (1994), and Yang et al. (2003a; 2003b; 2004; 2005).

In this paper, multifractal analysis together with wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM) method is used to analyze the fluctuating signals of circulating fluidized bed (CFB). Singularity spectrum shows that the gas-particle flow in CFB has multifractal character. Motion behavior of the particle-fluid system of CFB can be described by singularity spectrum. Intermittency index can be used to determine the transition of flow regime from fast fluidization to pneumatic conveying.

In the present work, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were proposed to model nonlinear dynamic behaviors of local voidage fluctuations induced by highly turbulent interactions between the gas and solid phases in circulating fluidized beds. The fluctuations of local voidage were measured by using an optical transmittance probe at various axial and radial positions in a circulating fluidized bed with a riser of 0.10 m in inner diameter and 10 m in height. The ANNs trained with experimental time series were applied to make short-term and long-term predictions of dynamic characteristics in the circulating fluidized bed. An early stop approach was adopted to enhance the long-term prediction capability of ANNs. The performance of the trained ANN was evaluated in terms of time-averaged characteristics, power spectra, cycle number and short-term predictability analysis of time series measured and predicted by the model.

Handling industrial powders leads to dust emissions. These emissions tend to generate human diseases or cause other environmental effects. A multitude of apparatus has been developed to estimate this dustiness behaviour of powders. Two of these well-known methods are presented and compared with each other. A third recently developed method is also introduced.

The processing of fine-grained particles with diameters between 1 and 10 microns is difficult due to strong van-der-Waals attraction forces. In order to improve the handling properties, the fine-grained particles, i.e. host-particles, are coated with various nanoparticles, i.e. guest-particles. The mixing of fine-grained powders is influenced by particl-particle interactions. If these forces are distinctively used, both interactive and ordered mixtures can be produced. These particle mixtures consist of composite-particles that have new physical properties. These modified properties depend strongly on the coating process, the diameter- and mass-relationship of the guest- and the host-particles. The properties of the composite-particles can systematically be adjusted to the requirements of industrial applications. For example, a laboratory bubbling fluidized bed can be used to describe the conveying behavior of the functionalized host-particles. Applications for the functionalized particles are in the pharmaceutical and the powder coating industries, e.g. enhanced dry powder inhalers and thin lacquer films. The present research compares three different mixing/coating processes. The composite-particles are characterized by TEM, SEM and with their fluidization characteristics. The coating process itself is monitored by the electrostatic charge of the particles.

In this paper, the opportunities and challenges which future applications based on nanoparticles offer to engineers are described. New high-added value products induce us to rethink ways to control nanoparticle design and handling. Several challenges are described and typical solutions are given: (1) finding relevant engineering tasks outside traditional process industry; (2) the importance of mixing reactants; (3) obtaining monodisperse particles; (4) gaining efficient control via electric forces and (5) developing multi-step processes which allow more control over particle properties.

Aluminum coatings were created onto glass beads by chemical vapor deposition in a fluidized bed reactor at different temperatures. Nitrogen was enriched with Triisobutylaluminum (TIBA) vapor and the latter was thermally decomposed inside the fluidized bed to deposit the elemental aluminum. To ensure homogeneous coating on the bed material, the fluidizing conditions necessary to avoid agglomeration were investigated for a broad range of temperatures. The deposition reaction was modeled on the basis of a discrete particle simulation to gain insight into homogeneity and thickness of the coating throughout the bed material. In particular, the take-up of aluminum was traced for selected particles that exhibited a large mass of deposited aluminum.

Fluidized bed technology using supercritical carbon dioxide both as a fluidizing gas and as a solvent for the coating material makes possible the production of thin, uniform and solvent-free coatings. But operation at low fluidizing velocities, which is favorable to facilitate gas cleaning under the high pressure conditions, may lead to uneven distribution of the coating in the fluidized bed and to unstable operation due to agglomeration. Therefore a model has been developed which describes local fluid dynamics within the high pressure fluidized bed. Based on this model, the coating process is described and the distribution of the coating inside the fluidized bed is calculated. Furthermore a submodel for the calculation of local concentrations of liquid paraffin has been set up, which may be used as a basis for the prediction of agglomeration and thus stability of operation.

Particle generation via atomization and spray processes is a widely applied method for powder production. By means of atomization processes, the relevant particle properties may be tailored to the powder user's need in a wide range. Understanding and control of the main subprocesses of atomization is a key feature for choosing a suitable type of spray process and operation conditions. Tailoring particle properties and extending the applications of particle production beyond the current limits is also possible in this way. This contribution highlights some features of spray processes for powder production, namely the gas- and fluid-dynamic processes involved, the materials-related subprocesses, and the formation of the multiphase flow in the spray. As an example, the production of fibre- or sphere-shaped particles from melt atomization is discussed.

An important development in Particle Technology is directed towards tailored product properties, i.e. product engineering. Product properties are strongly related to the disperse properties of the particles, i.e. their size, shape, morphology and surface. We discuss some general applicable principles in product engineering and give various examples. Strongly related to this approach are methods to characterize and to tailor product and particle properties. For systems which are controlled by the interfaces (e.g. particles in the micron size range and below) we apply a multi-scale approach from the particulate interfaces over particle interactions to the macroscopic properties. Thus, we tailor macroscopic product properties through microscopic control of the interfaces. This approach must be complemented by methods to characterize particle and product properties. It is shown that by careful consideration of the underlying physical processes considerable progress can be achieved.

Fast chemical reactions involved in nanomaterials synthesis, polymerization, special chemicals production, reactive absorption, etc., are often difficult to control in terms of product quality, process efficiency and production consistency. After a theoretical analysis on such processes based on chemical reaction engineering fundamentals, an idea to intensify micromixing (mixing on the molecular scale) and mass transfer and therefore to control the process ideally was proposed. By experimental investigations of mass transfer and micromixing characteristics in the Rotating Packed Bed (RPB, or "HIGEE" device), we achieved unique intense micromixing. This led us to the invention of using RPB as a reactor for the fabrication of nanoparticles (Chen et al., 2000).

RPB consists mainly of a rotating packed rotator inside a stationary casing. The high gravity environment created by the RPB, which could be orders of magnitude larger than gravity, causes aqueous reactants going through the packing to spread or split into micro or nano droplets, threads or thin films, thus markedly intensifying mass transfer and micromixing to the extent of 1 to 3 orders of magnitude larger than that in a conventional packed bed.

In 1994, the first RPB reactor was designed to synthesize nanoparticles of CaCO₃ through multiphase reaction between Ca(OH)₂ slurry and CO₂ gas, and nanoparticles of 15~30nm in mean size and with very uniform particle size distribution was obtained. In 1997, a pilot-scale RPB reactor was successfully set up for operation, and in 2000, the first commercial-scale RPB reactor for synthesis of such nanoparticles came into operation in China, establishing a milestone in the use of RPB as a reactor for the fabrication of nanomaterials (Chen et al., 2002).

Since then, the high gravity method has been employed for the synthesis of inorganic and organic nanoparticles via gas-liquid, liquid-liquid, and gas-liquid-solid multiphase reactions, e.g. inorganic nanoparticles like nanosized CaCO₃, TiO₂, SiO₂, ZnO, Al₂O₃, ZnS, BaTiO₃, BaCO₃, SrCO₃, Al(OH)₃ and Mg(OH)₂ flame retardants, and organic nano-pharmaceuticals including benzoic acid, salbutamol sulfate and cephradine. This technology received extensive attention in the field of nanomaterials fabrication and application. Dudukovic et al. commented, "The first large-scale application of RPB as a reactor occurred in China in production of nano CaCO₃ by HGRP (high gravity reactive precipitation) of carbon dioxide and lime. Uniformly small particles were made in the RPB due to achievement of a sharp supersaturation interface and very short liquid residence times in the device." (Dudukovic et al., 2002). Date et al. said, "HGRP represents a second generation of strategies for nanosizing of hydrophobic drugs. In our opinion, among various methodologies described earlier, supercritical anti-solvent enhanced mass transfer method and HGRP method has potential to become technologies of the future owing to their simplicity, ease of scale-up and nanosizing efficiency" (Date et al., 2004).

As-synthesized nano CaCO₃ was employed as a template to synthesize silica hollow spheres (SHS) with mesostructured walls. Characterizations indicated that the obtained SHS had an average diameter of about 40nm with a surface area of 766~1050 m²·g^-1 (Le et al., 2004). SHS was further investigated as a carrier to study the controlled release behaviors of Brilliant Blue F (BB), which was used as a model drug. Loaded inside the inner core and on the surfaces of SHS, BB was released slowly into a bulk solution for as long as 1140min as compared to only 10min for the normal SiO₂ nanoparticles, thus exhibiting a typical sustained release pattern without any burst effect. In addition, higher BET value of the carrier, lower pH value and lower temperature prolonged BB release from SHS, while stirring speed indicated little influence on the release behavior, showing the promising future of SHS in controlled drug delivery (Li et al., 2004).

Nano-CaCO₃ synthesized by the high gravity method was also employed as a filler to improve the performance of organic materials. By adding CaCO₃ nanoparticles into polypropylene-ethylene copolymer (PPE) matrix, the toughness of the matrix was substantially increased. At a nanosized CaCO₃ content of 12phr (parts per hundred PPE resin by weight), the impact strength of CaCO₃/PPE at room temperature reached 61.6kJ·m^-2, which was 3.02 times that of unfilled PPE matrix. In the nanosized CaCO₃/PPE/SBS (styrene-butadiene-styrene) system, the rubbery phase and filler phase were independently dispersed in the PPE matrix. As a result of the addition of nanosized CaCO₃, the viscosity of PPE matrix significantly increased. The increased shear force during compounding continuously broke down SBS particles, resulting in the reduction of the SBS particle size and improving the dispersion of SBS in the polymer matrix. Thus the toughening effect of SBS on matrix was improved. Simultaneously, the existence of SBS provided the matrix with good intrinsic toughness, satisfying the condition that nanosized inorganic particles of CaCO₃ efficiently toughened the polymer matrix, thus fully exhibiting the synergistic toughening function of nanosized CaCO₃ and SBS on PPE matrix (Chen et al., 2004).

As-prepared nano-CaCO₃ was blended with TiO₂ and other additives to prepare complex master batches for use in the coloring of polypropylene. It was found that the obtained nano-CaCO₃ is an excellent pigment dispersant, which can partially replace TiO₂ pigments for polypropylene resin coloring. Nano-CaCO₃ can prompt the dispersion of TiO₂ in polymer matrix, boosting the whiteness of the materials without a negative effect on the UV absorbency of the materials (Guo et al., 2004). Studies on the mechanical properties of nano-CaCO₃ toughened epoxy resin composite indicated that impact strength and flexural modulus of the composite improved remarkably when 6wt.% of nano-CaCO₃ was added. Surface treatment of nano-CaCO₃ by titanate coupling agents significantly improved the dispersibility of nano-CaCO₃ in such a high viscous matrix (Li et al, 2005).

Biomass utilization could relieve the pressure caused by conventional energy shortage and environmental pollution. Advantage should be taken of the abundant biomass in China as clean energy source to substitute for traditional fossil fuels. At present, flash pyrolysis appears to be an efficient method to produce high yields of liquids that could either be directly used as fuel or converted to other valuable chemicals. Experiments were carried out of pyrolyzing biomass particles in a hot dense fluidized bed of sand to obtain high-quality bio-oil. Among four kinds of biomass species adopted in our experiment, Padauk Wood had the best characteristics in producing bio-oil. GC-MS analysis showed bio-oil to be a complex mixture consisting of many compounds. Furthermore, an integrated model was proposed to reveal how temperature influences biomass pyrolysis. Computation indicated that biomass particles underwent rapid heating before pyrolysis.

Among the technologies to control SO₂ emission from coal-fired boilers, the dry flue gas desulphurization (FGD) method, with appropriate modifications, has been identified as a candidate for realizing high SO₂ removal efficiency to meet both technical and economic requirements, and for making the best quality byproduct gypsum as a useful additive for improving alkali soil.

Among the possible modifications two major factors have been selected for study:

(1) favorable chemical reaction kinetics at elevated temperatures and the sorbent characteristics;

(2) enhanced diffusion of SO₂ to the surface and within the pores of sorbent particles that are closely related to gas-solid two-phase flow patterns caused by flue gas and sorbent particles in the reactor.

To achieve an ideal pore structure, a sorbent was prepared through hydration reaction by mixing lime and fly ash collected from bag house of power plants to form a slurry, which was first dewatered and then dried. The dry sorbent was found capable of rapid conversion of 70% of its calcium content at 700°C, reaching a desulphurization efficiency of over 90% at a Ca/S ratio of 1.3.

Experiments confirmed that the diffusion effect of SO₂ is an important factor and that gas-solid two-phase flow plays a key role to mixing and contact between SO₂ and sorbent particles. For designing the FDG reactor, a new theoretical drag model was developed by combination of CFD with the Energy Minimization Multi-Scale (EMMS) theory for dense fluidization systems. This new drag model was first verified by comparing calculated and measured drag values, and was then implemented in simulation of gas-solid two-phase flow in two circulating fluidized beds with different sizes and flow pa-rameters. One riser has diameter and height of 0.15m×3m and another one 0.2m×14.2m. Their superficial gas velocities are 4 and 5.2m·s^-1, respectively, and the circulating rate 53 and 489 kg·(m^-2·s^-1). FCC particles were used in both cases. The results show that not only the static pressure drop along the riser height, but also radial distributions of particle volume fraction have been very well predicted in comparison with experiments. The new drag model is expected to shed more light on the further improvement of SO₂ diffusion to solid sorbent and optimization of reactor structure.

The carbon content in the fly ash from most Chinese circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers is much higher than ex-pected, thus directly influencing the combustion efficiency. In the present paper, carbon burnout was investigated both in field tests and laboratory experiments. The effect of coal property, operation condition, gas-solid mixing, char deactivation, residence time and cyclone performance are analyzed seriatim based on large amount of experimental results.

A coal index is proposed to describe the coal rank, defined by the ratio of the volatile content to the coal heat value, is a useful parameter to analyze the char burnout. The carbon content in the fly ash depends on the coal rank strongly. CFB boilers burning anthracite, which has low coal index, usually have high carbon content in the fly ash. On the contrary, the CFB boilers burning brown coal, which has high coal index, normally have low carbon content.

Poor gas-solid mixing in the furnace is another important reason of the higher carbon content in the fly ash. Increasing the velocity and rigidity of the secondary air could extend the penetration depth and induce more oxygen into the furnace center. Better gas solid mixing will decrease the lean oxygen core area and increase char combustion efficiency.

The fine char particles could be divided into two groups according to their reactivity. One group is "fresh" char particles with high reactivity and certain amount of volatile content. The other group of char particles has experienced sufficient combustion time both in the furnace and in the cyclone, with nearly no volatile. These "old" chars in the fly ash will be deactivated during combustion of large coal particles and have very low carbon reactivity. The generated fine inert char particles by attrition of large coal particles could not easily burn out even with the fly ash recirculation. The fraction of large coal particles in coal feed should be reduced during fuel preparation process.

The cyclone efficiency controls the particle residence time in CFB loop, especially for that of the fine particles. So the cyclone efficiency, especially the cut size, will greatly influence the carbon content in the fly ash.

This paper presents some remarks on the perspectives of process engineering in the 21^st century extracted from the discussion at the workshop. It is considered that the field will be upgraded by introducing knowledge in other fields, extended to even more applications by generalizing the relevant methods, and unified to, at least covered by, the complexity science. Transdisciplinarity is necessary to cope with this challenge.