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Fluidized Bed Technologies for Bio-Based Materials Conversion: Advancing Combustion, Pyrolysis, and Gasification

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "I2: Energy and Combustion Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 1204

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Cracow University of Technology, Warszawska 24, 31-155 Cracow, Poland
Interests: combustion; fluidization; pyrolysis; catalysis; biomass
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Cracow University of Technology, 31-155 Kraków, Poland
Interests: fluidization; quantitative gas analysis, pyrolysis; catalysis, hydrogen economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the context of current efforts toward achieving net-zero emissions, real and scalable solutions for sourcing energy and chemical feedstocks, with a shift away from fossil fuels, are needed. Fluidized bed technologies offer such possibilities, though their application to date has largely relied on non-renewable raw materials. With this Special Issue, we encourage specialists, scientists, and practitioners involved in the development of fluidized bed technologies to share their findings and ideas, with particular emphasis on applications related to biofuels. Depending on the gas environment in which the process is carried out and the raw material used, fluidized bed technology can encompass a wide range of thermochemical (i.e., combustion, gasification, or pyrolysis) and catalytic processes, all potentially leading to the production of energy, hydrogen, and other valuable chemical feedstocks. These processes, when based on biogenic feedstocks, may also integrate with the fast carbon cycle, enhancing sustainability and reducing net carbon emissions. This Special Issue will showcase articles related to the use of fluidized bed reactors to organize processes supporting the reduction of pollutant emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and encouraging the use of renewable raw materials. We are aware of the need for a holistic approach to this subject, hence our goal of collecting articles covering various scales of process management, both those organized on a laboratory scale and in industrial installations, as well as issues related to simulations and model validation, as well as review articles.

Prof. Dr. Witold Żukowski
Dr. Gabriela Berkowicz-Płatek
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • fluidization
  • combustion
  • pyrolysis
  • gasification

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

32 pages, 6873 KB  
Article
Predicting Defluidization in Fluidized Bed Conversion: From Plastics Pyrolysis to Biomass Combustion via Surface Coating Models
by Kaicheng Chen, Zhongyi Li, Evangelos Tsotsas and Andreas Bück
Energies 2026, 19(1), 252; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19010252 - 2 Jan 2026
Viewed by 846
Abstract
In fluidized bed conversion processes such as pyrolysis and combustion, defluidization mainly arises from particle agglomeration, which originates from the surface coating of primary bed materials (e.g., sand) by partially liquefied feedstock components, e.g., plastics or biomass. For reliable operation, the probability of [...] Read more.
In fluidized bed conversion processes such as pyrolysis and combustion, defluidization mainly arises from particle agglomeration, which originates from the surface coating of primary bed materials (e.g., sand) by partially liquefied feedstock components, e.g., plastics or biomass. For reliable operation, the probability of occurrence of defluidization must be quantifiable. However, existing models are either computationally expensive or difficult to transfer across feedstocks with different rheological behaviors. Furthermore, such transferability challenges are particularly pronounced in technically relevant systems involving liquefied components, such as molten polymers and ash-derived silicate melts. In this study, we propose two new coating approaches: (i) a simplified full coating model, where a fraction of bed particles is directly assumed to be fully covered upon feed introduction, and (ii) a partial coating model, where only local surface regions of particles are coated. The proposed models are implemented within a Monte Carlo framework and validated against experimental data reported in the literature for polyethylene and polypropylene pyrolysis as well as for wheat straw combustion. Across all cases, the model predictions capture the experimentally observed defluidization behavior reported in reference studies (e.g., with coefficients of determination of R2=0.912 for the polymer series and R2=0.917 for the wheat straw series). Beyond model validation, several model-based analyses and discussions are further conducted based on the characteristics of the proposed framework. Overall, the developed methodology provides a generalized basis for analyzing coating-driven defluidization across polymers and biomass, with potential extensions to co-pyrolysis, co-gasification, and other thermochemical conversion processes. Full article
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