Review of (gas)-liquid-solid circulating fluidized beds as biochemical and environmental reactors

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2020-04, Vol.386, p.121951, Article 121951
• Main Authors: Wang, Jiaying, Shao, Yuanyuan, Yan, Xilong, Zhu, Jesse
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Circulating fluidized beds; Gas-liquid-solid fluidization; Liquid-solid fluidization; Potential applications; Proteins recovery; Wastewater treatment
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2019.121951

•Reviews on liquid-solid and gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized beds.•Applications in biological and environmental fields.•Ion-exchange and uninterrupted proteins recovery.•Biological wastewater treatment.•Inverse liquid-solid and gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized beds. Circulating fluidized beds (CFBs) possess many significant advantages over conventional fluidized beds, including enhanced interfacial contact efficiency and reduced back-mixing. Building on the many successful industrial applications of gas-solid CFBs, liquid-solid circulating fluidized beds (LSCFBs) and gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized beds (GLSCFBs) have recently also received increasing interests due to their massive potential in chemical-biochemical, environmental and pharmaceutical processes. This review summarizes the progress in the past several decades concerning LSCFBs and GLSCFBs, with more emphasis placed on the reported applications, after a general description of the unique features of the two types of CFBs. Most of the examples given in this review are still in laboratory-scale, but useful guidance can be provided to researchers or companies for further study and/or commercial exploration.