The project "Development and Application of Micro Fluidized Bed Reaction Analyzer(MFBRA)", undertaken by Prof. XU Guangwen from Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences was financially supported by Major National Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project.

MFBRA was an independent research achievement of Prof. XU’s group. Using the so-called micro fluidized bed (MFB) as the reactor, the instrument fulfilled the on-line pulse feeding and rapid heating of particle reactant in milligrams and micrometers to ensure the isothermal differential reaction conditions. Meanwhile, the heat and mass transfer for the differential reaction to minimize the inhibition of diffusion to reactions were strengthened. Based on the measured instantaneous gas composition, the reaction rate and isothermal kinetic parameters and further analyze the mechanism of the reaction were also estimated. Consequently, the MFBRA provides essentially the diffusion-minimized isothermal differential analysis for gas solid reactions so that the resulting characteristics and kinetics are close to the intrinsic reaction natures.

The instrument won the 2010 Chinese Association for Instrument Analysis (CAIA) Award and the 8th China International Scientific Instrument & Laboratory Equipment Exhibition (CISILE-2010) Award for self-independent innovation.

Major National Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project was set to fund the research and development of major instruments and equipments with novel methods and technologies, or that have already gained research achievements. In next three years, IPE researchers will focus on application of more than 20 kinds of MFBRA.

 Pictures of the Micro Fluidized Bed Reaction Analyzer (MFBRA) in the development stages from prototype to integrated analyzer (Image by IPE)