Effect of Sudden Increase of Solid Feed Rate on the Arching in Hoppers Connected to a Moving-Bed Standpipe with Interstitial Gas Flow

In this paper, a model is proposed for the prediction of the width of arching in hoppers resulted from sudden changes in solid feed rates. Such changes in solid feed rate usually come from the collision on the surface of the moving-bed in the standpipe. The model also takes into account the effect of the powder height in the standpipe of the hopper. The model proves to be adaptable for predicting operational conditions to avoid arching by keeping constant powder height in the main standpipe with interstitial gas flow.

Commissioning of First-in-World Pilot Moving-Bed Unit for Manufacture of Xylene from Methanol and Toluene

Recently the pilot moving-bed unit for manufacturing aromatics from methanol and toluene with co-production of low-carbon olefins designed by the Sinopec Engineering Incorporation(SEC)has been put on stream successfully.In the course of commissioning,the pilot unit ran smoothly,leading to high conversion rate in the moving-bed reactor,high yield of xylene product,easy lift of catalyst,and good coke burnout results,with all indicators complying with the expected operating requirements.

The investigation of pressure drop in moving-beds

The pressure drop of a cross-flow moving-bed was investigated in a two-dimensional rectangular apparatus.The effects of the particle velocity,the superficial gas veloc-ity,the formation and development of cavity/raceway and voidage of particles on the pressure drop were investigated experimentally under the operational conditions of 0.09–1.35 m/s of the superficial gas velocity and 0.95–9.68 cm/min of the particle velocity.The experimental results show that the particle velocity has little influence on the pressure drop,while the phenomena of cavity and pinning occur when the cross-flow velocity is high enough.The development of a cavity or a raceway can result in three types of variations of pressure drop with time:stabilization,slight fluctuation and severe fluctuation.A cavity appears in a process cycle of‘formation-growing up-collapsing-fluidization’at a high gas velocity.On the basis of experimental results,a model for calculating the pressure drop after a cavity occurs and a dimensionless relationship of cavity size is developed,which gives a good qualitative account of the experimental data.

Biological pretreatment of Yellow River water

Bio-ceramic filter(BF) and moving-bed biofilm reactor(MBBR) were used for biological pretreatment of Yellow River water in this study. The BF only had slight advantage over MBBR for TOC and ammonia removal. However, like UV_ 254 , the average removal rate of THMFP in the BF was much higher than that in the MBBR. UV_ 254 removal did not show obvious correlation with trihalomethane formation potential(THMFP) removal. Hexachlorocyclohexane could be effectively removed in both BF and MBBR. As for diatom and cyanobateria removal the MBBR had better performance than the BF, which was contrary to the average chlorophyll-a(Chl-a) removal rate. The proposal was made in this study that biological flocculation and sedimentation of sloughed biofilm should play a more important role on algae removal in the MBBR than in the BF. The BF and MBBR could effectively remove microcystins. Moreover, MBBR could be a promising technology for biological pretreatment.

Industrial Feasiblity of Direct Methane Conversion to Hydrocarbons over Fe-Based Fischer Tropsch Catalyst

Recently, as a direct consequence of the dwindling world oil reserves and the growing awareness of the environmental problems associated with the use of coal as energy source, there is growing interest in cheaper, abundant and cleaner burning methane. The Gas-to-Liquid technology offers perhaps the most attractive routes for the exploitation of the world huge and growing natural gas resources. Using this process the erstwhile stranded gas is converted to premium grade liquid fuels and chemicals that are easily transported. However, a widespread application of the GTL process is being hampered by economical and technical challenges. The high cost of synthesis gas, for instance, weighs heavily on the economics and competitiveness of the process limiting its wider application. This work presented a modified Gas-to-Liquid process that eliminates the costly synthesis gas production step. The proposed process utilized an alternative pathway for methane activation via the production of chloromethane derivatives which are then converted to hydrocarbons. It established that hydrocarbons mainly olefins can be economically produced from di- and tri-chloro- methanes over a typical iron-based Fischer Tropsch catalysts in a moving bed reactor at industrially relevant conditions. Some of the attractions of the proposed process include a) the elimination of the costly air separation plant requirement b) high process selectivity and c) significant reduction of carbon dioxide emissions thereby saving on feedstock loss and the costly CO2 removal and isolation processes.

Modification of nitrifying biofilm into nitritating one by combination of increased free ammonia concentrations, lowered HRT and dissolved oxygen concentration

Nitrifying biomass on ring-shaped carriers was modified to nitritating one in a relatively short period of time （37 days） by limiting the air supply, changing the aeration regime, shortening the hydraulic retention time and increasing free ammonia （FA） concentration in the moving-bed biofilm reactor （MBBR）. The most efficient strategy for the development and maintenance of nitritating biofilm was found to be the inhibition of nitrifying activity by higher FA concentrations （up to 6.5 mg/L） in the process. Reject water from sludge treatment from the Tallinn Wastewater Treatment Plant was used as substrate in the MBBR. The performance of high-surfaced biocarriers taken from the nitritating activity MBBR was further studied in batch tests to investigate nitritation and nitrification kinetics with various FA concentrations and temperatures. The maximum nitrite accumulation ratio （96.6%） expressed as the percentage of NO 2 ？ -N/NOx ？ -N was achieved for FA concentration of 70 mg/L at 36°C. Under the same conditions the specific nitrite oxidation rate achieved was 30 times lower than the specific nitrite formation rate. It was demonstrated that in the biofilm system, inhibition by FA combined with the optimization of the main control parameters is a good strategy to achieve nitritating activity and suppress nitrification.