The measurement and analysis of reaction
behavior, kinetics quantification, and mechanism clarification for
gas–solid reactions are essential to the research and development
of process technologies in fields of chemical engineering, energy
production, mineral processing, etc. By far, different approaches
and instruments have been applied for gas–solid reaction analysis
and measurement, but a recent development appears distinctive because
of its use of a micro fluidized bed (MFB) in implementing the so-called
isothermal differential analysis of gas–solid reactions at
the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS). Systematic work has been reported on hydrodynamic studies in
MFBs and the standardized development as well as its utilization of
the so-called micro fluidized bed reaction analyzer (MFBRA) for investigating
various particle-involved reactions, such as pyrolysis, combustion,
gasification, reduction, catalysis, absorption, etc. The obtained
results well demonstrated the distinctiveness of MFBs from the common
large-size fluidized beds and the obvious advantages of the MFBRA
for reaction analysis in aspects of rapid heating of the reactant
sample, minimization of diffusion limitation to the reaction, real-time
online capture of isothermal product formation characteristics, etc.
It was shown that MFBRA is particularly capable of analyzing rapid
complex reactions and providing some exceptional functions, such as
steam atmosphere, online particle sampling, and decoupling of complex
reactions in series. A series of applications well verified that the
MFBRA provides actually a fundamental approach and the kind of instruments
that are complementary to those of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
for gas–solid reaction measurement and analysis.