Fluidized Beds Providing Dependable and Efficient Drying Solutions
At Applied Chemical Technology (ACT), we believe in designing and fabricating industrial equipment with the highest quality standards. Our fluid bed dryers are designed and built by our team of engineers, designers, and craftsmen with experience in fluid bed applications and equipment design since 1981. We recognize the many considerations important in choosing the correct fluid bed dryer for your process. Taking into consideration your material properties like moisture, particle size distribution, particle shape, and heat sensitivity; we can help you choose a design as well as the correct parameters for inlet air temperature, bed temperature, air velocity, and retention time to produce the desired final moisture content for your product. With pilot plant facilities and equipment on-site, we are able to test your material and produce the data needed for equipment sizing and scale-up. In addition, our engineers can use our pilot plant facilities to develop converting your batch process to a continuous one.
Sizes: ¼ ft2 to 1000 ft2
Capacities: 4 lbs/hr to 50 tons/hr
Heat Sources Include:Burners, Steam Coils, Hot Oil Systems
Whether you need a fluid bed or a complete fluid bed system, ACT is the manufacturer for you. Our team designs systems to handle difficult materials including fabricating equipment with specialty metals. We build fluid bed systems that include heat exchangers, air handling systems, feed systems, product handling, multiple functions, and more. Through the use of zones in your fluid bed, your fluid bed dryer also can perform multiple unit operations.
Fluid Bed Dryer Applications
- Agglomerated Products
- Accretion Granulated Products
- Biomass – Wood Chips, Energy Crops, and Other Materials
- Minerals – Sands, Clays, and Other Minerals
- Animal Feeds – Cereal Grains, High Protein, Wastes, and By-Products
- Agricultural Wastes
- Fertilizers
- Foods – Cereals, Fruits and Vegetables, Starches, and more
- Polymers – Polyethylenes, Polypropylenes, Polystyrenes, Polyvinyl chlorides, and more
- Plastics – Pellets, Resin, PET, Waste
- Powders – Catalysts, Chemicals, Pigments, Metals and more
What are the Benefits of Drying in an ACT Fluidized Bed?
In a fluid bed dryer, a solid material is suspended and mixed by a stream of hot gases causing the solids to behave like a fluid. Because the solid particles are suspended in the hot gas, maximum contact occurs between the particles and the hot gas and this results in high heat transfer efficiency. Additionally, the hot gas is constantly drawn from the fluid bed maintaining a low humidity which promotes evaporation. The turbulent mixing in the fluid bed ensures that material is heated uniformly.
Some of the benefits of an ACT Fluid Bed Include:
- Efficient Heat Transfer
- Uniform Heat Distribution
- Gentle Handling of Product
- Low Maintenance – no moving parts
- Uniform Product Quality
- Small Footprint
- Available Pilot Testing
- Low Capital Costs
- On-site Engineering, Design, and Fabrication Support for Specialty Materials
- Experience in Fluid Bed Design and Fabrication Since 1981