Improved steam utilisation with internals in the reactor section of fluid cokers

Gas tracer experiments were carried out in a cold flow model that is geometrically and dynamically scaled down from commercial fluid cokers at a one ninth scale. Continuous helium tracer injections were made into the attrition and stripping gas spargers to observe the gas-solids mixing in the dense bed. Helium concentration profiles, which represent steam in the commercial reactor, were measured with different baffle configurations. The experiments demonstrate the annular region of the dense bed was helium-lean without any internals, meaning stripping is poor at the vessel walls, whereas the addition of internals promotes dense bed stripping in the proximity of the internal. Improved steam distribution implies better stripping performance, which leads to increased reactor product yield.