Gas-solid fluidized beds are widely used in various industrial processes like chemical manufacturing, gasification, combustion, coating, and drying due to their excellent mixing properties and heat and mass transfer characteristics. In these systems, gas flows through a bed of solid particles, suspending them and creating fluid-like behavior. When the gas flow exceeds a certain velocity, bubbles form within the bed, and understanding their behavior is crucial for optimizing reactor design and enhancing efficiency. However, conventional bubbling fluidized beds are often challenging to manage due to chaotic bubble dynamics, which can cause uneven solid mixing, gas channeling, and scale-up difficulties. Industry typically addresses these issues through staged scale-up and empirical adjustments. More recently, methods have been explored to achieve more ordered and predictable flow patterns by design, a concept known as structured fluidization. One promising strategy to achieve this introduces a periodic, oscillatory gas flow into the fluidized bed. This technique, first explored by Marc-Olivier Coppens and his team at the Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE) at University College London (UCL), was inspired by how gusts of wind or waves create structured patterns on beaches and dunes.
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