The aim of the present work is to characterize the effect of particle size changes from cycling of the thermochemical
energy storage material CaO/Ca(OH)2 on fluidizability and wall-to-bed heat transfer coefficients
in the fluidized bed. Materials replicated from previous storage cyclization experiments are experimentally
investigated in an ambient fluidization test rig. Differential pressure measurement and a horizontally immersed
heat transfer probe are used to characterize fluidizability and wall-to-bed heat transfer between immersed
cylinder and bed material. Sauter mean diameters of the replicated particle size distributions range from 27 μm
to 282 μm. Particle size distributions with Sauter mean diameters significantly smaller than approximately 50 μm
were found to be difficult to fluidize due to excessive channeling, resulting in low heat transfer coefficients. In
this case, fluidization quality and heat transfer is enhanced for higher gas velocities. Fluidizable particle size
distributions ranged from Sauter mean diameters of 48 μm to 282 μm. Measured heat transfer coefficients show
little dependency on the particle size. Observed maximum heat transfer coefficients range from 344Wm−2 K−1
to 350Wm−2 K−1.
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