Stability Analysis of Gas–Solid Distribution through Nonidentical Parallel Paths

Gas–solid fluidized beds in parallel can share some common units yet couple different reactions without extra pressure drop. The bottleneck, however, in such a parallel system, especially with nonidentical paths, is to ensure the stability of desirable gas–solid distribution. After the nonidentity index is defined, a framework to detect the instability of gas–solid distribution through a nonidentical parallel system is established via linear stability analysis. Besides, experimental studies are carried out on an asymmetric dual downer pilot plant, where two catalytic cracking reactors share one regenerator, to verify the theoretical analysis. The Matthew effect phenomenon of solid circulation rate fluctuations is reported, i.e., the path with a high solid circulation rate easily obtains positive fluctuation, while the path with a low solid circulation rate prefers negative fluctuation.