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Fluidized beds suspend solid fuels on upward-blowing jets of air during the combustion process. The result is a turbulent mixing of gas and solids. The tumbling action, much like a bubbling fluid, provides more effective chemical reactions and heat transfer. Fluidized-bed combustion evolved from efforts to find a combustion process able to control pollutant emissions without external emission controls
(such as scrubbers).
- The popularity of fluidized bed combustion is due largely to the technology's fuel flexibility and the capability of meeting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission standards without the need for expensive add-on controls.
- Atmospheric-pressure fluidized beds are commercially available now as two types, known as bubbling fluidized bed combustion and circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) units. The efficiency of most fluidized beds used for power generation is similar to that of a conventional pulverized coal power plant. However, use of this technology has been stimulated by its better environmental performance when using lower rank coals. Several pressurized fluidized bed combustors (PFBCs) have been built, but the technology has not had wide-spread commercial application.
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