Experimental study on pressure drop characteristics of supercritical water fluidized bed.

Experimental study on pressure drop characteristics of supercritical water fixed bed and fluidized bed was conducted with a pressure range of 23~27 MPa and a temperature range of 360-420°C. The results show that the Ergun formula for calculating fixed bed pressure drop can still be applied in supercritical water conditions and the average deviation between calculation and experiment results was 13.3%. A prediction correlation for minimum fluidization velocity in supercritical water fluidized bed was obtained based on the experimental results of a fixed bed and fluidized bed pressure drop characteristics. The average error between the correlation calculation and experiment results was about 3.1%. This study provides the useful results for parameters design and operation of supercritical water fluidized bed reactor.