Alden has many years of expertise in gas-solid and gas-liquid systems deployed in the refinery, utility, and process industries. Systems modeled by Alden staff include:
• FCC
• CFB
• Cyclone design and development
• Ash transport
• Sorbent injection design
• Erosion prediction and minimization
• Gas-liquid contacting trays
• Gas-liquid distribution systems
A dedicated gas-solid facility was brought online in 2009 and has been used to model solid distribution and contact systems. The first project employing this facility simulated pulverized coal delivery systems and provided a realistic test bed to make sure that the coal was distributed properly between each burner for optimal combustion efficiency. The facility has also been used for circulating fluidized bed and dry scrubber design. Other applications include the development of lances and nozzles for the injection of sorbent materials into boiler outlet ductwork to control pollutants such as mercury and sulfur oxides. Additionally, it provides a useful tool to Alden’s customers in industries such as oil refining and pharmaceuticals. Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) units are designed to provide maximum contact between gaseous feed and catalyst particles for fuel conversion, and this facility provides a test bed for optimizing this process. Similarly, the pharmaceutical manufacturing process often involves transporting fine solid particles in a pneumatic system.
Water-wash systems, distillation and cooling tower packing, and scrubber trays are some of the application areas of interest for modeling and optimization of gas-liquid systems.
