2 nd Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering 4 th Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering FLUIDYNAMICS OF OIL SHALE PARTICLES IN SPOUTED AND FLUIDIZED BEDS P. S. S. Porto 1 * , A. C. L. Lisbôa 1 1 School of Chemical Engeneering – State University of Campinas CP 6066, CEP 13083-970 – Campinas, SP, Brasil Abstract. This work applied the solid-gas contacting techniques named spouted bed and fluidized bed to oil shale. The oil shale had average particle diameter of 3 mm and 1.5 mm for the spouted bed and 1.5 mm and 0.85 mm for the fluidized bed. The cone-cylindrical vessel for the spouted and the cylindrical one for the fluidized bed were made of plexyglass to allow visualization. The vessels were 0.20 m diameter and 0.80 m high. Values of maximum pressure drop (∆P M ), minimum spouting velocity (U ms ), minimum spouting flow rate (Q ms ), stable spouting pressure drop (∆P S ) and pressure drop at minimum spouting flow rate (∆P ms ) were obtained. Values for minimum fluidization velocity (U mf ) and bed pressure drop at the minimum fluidization were also obtained. The minimum spouting velocity (U ms ) and minimum fluidization velocity (U mf ) experimental values were compared to values from empiric equations previously published. Keywords: Oil Shale; Spouted Bed; Fluidized Bed. 1. Introduction Brazil has the second largest oil shale reserve in the world. Oil shale is a sedimentary rock that contains organic matter named kerogen scattered throughout a mineral matrix. When oil shale is subjected to high temperatures it releases oil and gas. The oil refining produces distillates with similar properties to the ones from petroleum. The use of oil shale consists in pyrolyzing the rock to produce synthetic petroleum. Oil shale contains some moisture. Oil shale pre-drying is of great importance (Porto and Lisbôa, 2004), because it eliminates this water, which would consume the retorting reaction heat. Knowledge of the parameters involved in the removal of oil shale moisture and the behavior of the material during this operation is also important. The spouted bed is a solid-gas contacting technique, which promotes a circular movement of particles inside a bed. It is made up of three distinct regions: central, spouting and annular (Mathur and Epstein, 1974). The technique has been studied to extract oil and gas from carbon bearing rocks like oil shale and coal. It has been very used to dry many materials and to coat different kinds of particles. The particle size used in spouted bed is usually larger than 1 mm. Fluidized beds have been widely used for chemical and food processing because of its high heat and mass transfer rates. They have been used for drying, granulation, coating and agglomeration. Fluidized bed dryers are very used to dry particles lower than 1 mm. * To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Address: Faculdade de Engenharia Química, UNICAMP - DTF, CP 6066 - 13083-970 Campinas,SP – Brasil E-mail: porto@feq.unicamp.br 1