Preface

With the rapid growth of both technical and scientific literature related to transport phenomena in particulatesystems, it is difficult for an individual researcher in this field to keep abreast of the developments. This eBook intends to present the state of the art and some case studies involving the multiple facets of systems consisting of the interaction between a fluid and particles in separation processes.

The text is divided into four principal sections. The first section provides an overview of the fundamentals going from the drying of a single particle and the aspects related to deformation and details on internal stresses, to the analysis of heat transfer in a fixed bed percolated by a specific fluid and the fluidization of particles with low sphericity, a subject that is still little investigated.

The second part consists of computational fluid dynamic simulations of two spouted bed configurations. A number of works on this field have recently appeared in the literature, but the main purpose of section two is to present the subject in a more didactic way.

Section three of this eBook focus on especial drying by means of case studies of drying granular matter in spouted bed, process control of paste drying in spouted bed and a review of drying of pharmaceutical products.

Section four, the last part of the eBook, presents two studies on effluent treatment in particulate systems. One is directed to analyzing the use of a biological fluidized bed reactor in the treatment of liquid effluent and the other is focused on the use of porous electrodes for the same purpose.

We expect that this eBook will be used by undergraduate and graduate students as well as by professionals who are interested in particulate systems.