Vertically vibrated spouted bed with improved process efficiency

This technology is a spouted bed that incorporates vertical vibration to stabilize the spout, allowing for improved recirculation rate, range of operating conditions, and overall process efficiency.

Unmet Need: Cost-effective and efficient strategy for mitigating spout instabilities

Spouted beds often experience spout instability due to non-uniform gas flow, bed or inlet asymmetries, or particle agglomeration. These instabilities result in non-uniformity in industrial processing which is detrimental to process quality. Current methods to mitigate spout instability are either cost-prohibitive for industrial applications or reduce the recirculation rate, thus decreasing process efficiency. As such, there is a need for cost-effective strategies to mitigate spout instabilities that do not sacrifice efficiency.

The Technology: Spouted bed with vertically vibrated spout to decrease instability

This technology improves the efficiency of spouted beds by vertically vibrating the spout to mitigate spout deflection. This simple solution improves spout stability without the need for expensive equipment or limiting the recirculation rate. The result is increased particle homogeneity, faster recirculation, and an enhanced range of stable operating conditions, which increases the processing efficiency of spouted beds without significant cost. This technology has applications in industrial granulation, mixing, drying, coating, gasification, and pyrolysis processes.

Applications:

• Pharmaceutical production
• Fertilizer production
• Food processing
• Biomass gasification
• Combustion systems
• Catalyst manufacturing
• Coating/plating

Advantages:

• Indicate how the invention is better than existing technology. Use present tense.
• Improved range of spouted bed operating conditions
• Increased recirculation rate
• Increased particle homogeneity
• Low cost compared to other high efficiency methods

Lead Inventor:

Christopher Boyce, Ph.D.

Related Publications:

• Punch OJ, Spitler C, Cabrera BN, Jordan MW, Khan A, Boyce CM. “Mitigation of Spouted Bed Instabilities Using Vibration: Experiments and CFD-DEM.” Ind Eng Chem Res. 2025 Jan 29;64(4):2433–45.

• Spitler C, Punch O, Cabrera BN, Boyce C. “Experimental Study and CFD-DEM Simulation of Vibrated Dry and Wet Spouted Beds. In AIChE; 2024

• Punch OJ, Cabrera BN, Spitler C, Boyce CM. “Control of spout deflection in dry and wet spouted beds using vibration.” Chemical Engineering Journal. 2024 Sep 1;495:153459.

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR CU25065

• Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu