A gas-solid air loop fluidized bed was proposed. Experiment was conducted to investigate meso- and macro-scale hydrodynamics. CFD simulation was made to evaluate the performance of GASLR technology in an industrial unit as a catalyst stripper, cooler and mixer, respectively. Results from an industrial RFCC unit show that the GSALR technology significantly improves the stripping efficiency.
Mengxi Liu is a full professor at China University of Petroleum-Bejing. His research interests includes fluidization, process intensification, scale-up and commercialization of fluidized bed reactors in petrochemical processes, especially in Resid Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) process. For the past decade, he is dedicated to developing a novel gas-solid air loop reactor (GSALR). He investigated meso and macro scales hydrodynamics and heat and mass transfer in GSALR. Then he proposed and developed a series of GSALR-based key equipments for RFCC process, such as the catalyst stripper, catalyst mixer and catalyst cooler. Up to now, the GSALR-based stripper has been used in eighteen RFCC units up to 180 Mt/a, and the GSALR-based catalyst cooler has been used in two 80 Mt/a RFCC units. He come up with a novel short residence time separator (SRTS), which has run for 1000 hours continuously in a pilot scale reactor of Wanhua Chemical with satisfied separation efficiency and pressure drop. He also proposed a novel gas-solid hybrid fluidized bed reactor for Pyridine synthesis process. After leading a series of studies conducted in a hot mode apparatus with a 14 mm ID ICFB reactor, a cold mode apparatus having a 140 mm ID ICFB and a pilot scale apparatus of a handling capacity of 65 kg/h, respectively, he commercialized the reactor for a 2.5×104 t/a Pyridine synthesis unit in 2018. He has more than 27 papers published in international journals and more than 20 patents, and won two awards issued by the Ministry of National Education and the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, respectively.
