Experimental study on the motion characteristics of non-spherical biomass particulate systems in a fluidization tube

•Kinematic analysis of irregular biomass particles in fluidization tube under dilute-phase pneumatic conveying processes.•Velocity and spatial distribution analysis of flaky irregular biomass particles in fluidization tube.•Analysis of aggregation patterns of flaky, fibrous and streaky biomass particles near the wall region in the tube.•Empirical equations for maximum particle clustering of flaky, fibrous, and streaky biomass particles were summarized. This study experimentally investigated the transport characteristics of flaky, fibrous and streaky biomass particles in a fluidization tube. The movement and distribution of these non-spherical biomass particles in different sections of the fluidization tube were visualized and analyzed by using a Particle Tracking Velocimetry measuring approach. The method for calculating the solidity rate distribution of particles in the fluidization tube was also developed. Furthermore, the distribution patterns of non-spherical biomass particles with three different morphologies in the near-wall region of the fluidization tube were significantly analyzed. It could be observed that the area of the non-spherical biomass particles in the near-wall region exhibited an ’M’ shape. Three empirical formulas for predicting the maximum area of non-spherical biomass particle clusters in the fluidization tube were firstly proposed. Among the three prediction formulas, the correlation coefficients are 0.7142, 0.8797, and 0.9567, respectively.