More than 80% of your gasoline, 70% of your polyolefins and a plethora of other products are made using fluidized bed technology. From gasification to drying, fluidized beds and circulating fluidized beds provide the distinct advantage of high heat transfer and solids mobility. These features have resulted in several breakthrough technologies with better temperature control and the ability to move solids from a reduction to an oxidation environment. This workshop will focus on some of these breakthrough technologies. Billions of pounds of bulk solids are processed and handled every year by the US process industries, yet most chemical engineers are ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of engineering science of solids processing. Hence, plants and products suffer with lost production, inability to achieve design production rates, off grade or off specification products. During this session, we will take a look at the fun and exciting world of solids processing. Specifically, we will look at some of the more common particle-based technologies examining both the important role they play in society today along with the associated technical challenges.

Annual Student Conference