Abstract

"Modeling the Bubbling Fluidized Bed Reactor, BFB."

Levenspiel_Transcript.pdf

In process equipment, fluid is usually made to approximate one of two ideal flow patterns: PLUG FLOW or MIXED FLOW. Prediction and design are relatively easy for these ideals, and lucky for us, one or other is usually optimal.

The one major exception to this rule is the bubbling fluidized bed, which is the heart of so many important industrial processes, which use very fine particles to catalyze gas phase reactions. This talk focuses on our clumsy and often awkward efforts to understand the behavior of, and develop reliable design methods for, these reactors.

Abstract

"A Chemical Engineer Visits Dinosaurland"

If we visit Dinosaurland we will come across some most amazing and puzzling phenomena. For example: how can a flying creature as large as a quetzalcoatlus (12-15 m wingspan) actually fly when aerodynamic theory and biology both say that it cannot. Also, how can a giant dinosaur such as an apatosaur pump blood up to its brain (more than 13 m above its heart) when animal energetics says that in no way can it do it.