Novel method of air distributor design for enhancing bed stability and reducing impurities in gas-solid fluidized bed system

Coal plays a key role in the economic development of China. It is greatly significant to improve the efficient use of coal through high-efficiency dry separation. In this paper, a porous sponge was used to optimize the air distributor, and its fluidization characteristics were studied. Response surface methodology was used to study the collaborative optimization effects of gas velocity, separation time, and bed height on the fine coal separation. Gas velocity was the main factor which affects separation efficiency. When separation is in operation parameters, the yield and ash content were 65.48 and 10.89% as to the clean coal product and 9.24 and 80.47% as to the gangue product, respectively. Furthermore, the yield and ash content of middlings were 25.29 and 20.32%, respectively. The probable error, E, values were between 0.085 and 0.100 g/cm(3). Using XRF and FTIR analysis, it was observed that the harmful elements and impurities in coal were reduced during the separation process.