Influence of Temperature on Fluidized-Bed Catalyst Attrition Behavior

Particle attrition is a prevalent problem in fluidized beds due to continuous moving of catalyst particles. It is always operated at high temperature either for lab-or industrial-scale fluidized beds. The influence of temperature on the attrition behavior of commercial methanol-to-olefins (MTO) and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts is analyzed in a three-orifice lab-scale fluidized bed device from room temperature to 600 degrees C. The two catalysts are found to be alike in attrition mode. Both change from a combination of abrasion and fragmentation to main abrasion with increasing temperature, but differ greatly in the variation of attrition index with temperature which may be attributed to the difference of material and particle properties. An empirical correlation of attrition index to attrition temperature for all test samples is proposed.