Experimental study on the removal of FCCS catalyst particles by electrostatic separation

Electrostatic separation is a technology for removing catalyst particles from fluid catalytic cracking slurry (FCCS). In this study, the particle trajectory was simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics based on theories and deductions. To verify whether these theories are reasonable for an electrostatic separation simulation, a mixture of alkylbenzene and catalysts was used to characterize the FCCS, and a cold model experiment was carried out, Moreover, the effects of the raw material properties, operating conditions and material properties on the efficiency of the separation were investigated. The results showed that the separation efficiency increased with decreasing glass sphere diameter because the porosity decreased. With the increase in the size of the catalyst particles, the dielectrophoretic (DEP) force increased rapidly and played a more important role, and the separation efficiency increased. Increasing the separation time helped adsorb the catalyst particles that were far from the contact point of the glass ball, and some particles in these areas were unable to be adsorbed. The electrostatic separator has the optimal voltage, and this value decreased with decreasing glass sphere diameter. The experimental results were consistent with the theoretical analysis. Through the nonlinear fitting of a large number of experimental data points, the prediction model of the device was obtained.