Effect of particles on hydrodynamics and mass transfer in a slurry bubble column: Correlation of experimental data

The effects of particle concentration and size on hydrodynamics and mass transport in a slurry bubble column were experimentally studied. With increasing particle concentration, the averaged gas holdup, gas holdup of small bubbles and gas-liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient decreased, while the gas holdup of large bubbles increased slightly. With increasing particle size, the averaged gas holdup and kla remained unchanged when the particle size increased from 55 to 92 m, but decreased significantly when the particle size was further increased to 206 m. A liquid turbulence attenuation model which could quantitatively describe the effects of particle concentration and size was first proposed. Semi-empirical correlations were obtained based on extensive experimental data in a wide range of operating conditions and corrected liquid properties. The gas holdup and mass transfer coefficient calculated by the correlations agreed with the experimental data from both two-phase and three-phase bubble columns

Hydrodynamics of an Airlift Column for Aeration in Molten Sulfur

The airlift column is a promising technology for the removal of volatile gas from high-viscosity molten sulfur. However, a detailed analysis is lacking on the hydrodynamic properties inside the column, due to the difficulty in flow behavior detection in the opaque molten sulfur. In this work, we adopted the computational fluid dynamics simulation to understand the hydrodynamic behaviors in an airlift column for molten sulfur aeration. In addition, we analyzed the impacts of the superficial gas velocity (UGr) and column height on the hydrodynamic characteristics, such as gas holdup, average bubble diameter, and liquid circulation velocity (ULr) in the column. The simulation shows that at a constant column height of 15 m, an increase on gas holdup can be obtained with the increase of the superficial gas velocity, while the bubble diameter remains almost constant. Once the superficial gas velocity exceeded 0.333 m/s, the liquid circulation velocity increased slowly. With a variation on the column height from 5 to 25 m, a negligible change on gas holdup, but an obvious increase on liquid circulation velocity and bubble diameter is observed at the given superficial gas velocity of 0.0389 m/s. Furthermore, the simulation shows a similar trend, but with considerably more detailed information, on the relationship between the gas holdup and liquid circulation velocity when compared to the predictions from the Chisti correlation (1988) and an optimized correlation proposed in this work.

Characteristics of carbide slag slurry flow in a bubble column carbonation reactor

The direct aqueous mineral carbonation of carbide slag was investigated. The flow characteristics of carbide slag-CO2-water reaction system in a bubble column were studied, which included the bubble Sauter mean diameter, gas holdup, bubble residence time, and the gas-liquid interfacial area. Bubble flow behaviors in the reactor were characterized by analyzing the bed pressure signals. The effects of the gas velocity (U g ) and liquid to solid ratio (L/S ratio) were discussed and analyzed. The results showed that the larger bubbles were easy to form at the larger L/S ratio, which indicated that the bubble coalescence was promoted. The gas holdup was larger when increasing U g or reducing the L/S ratio. The better gas-liquid interfacial areas were found in a wide range of L/S ratio at U g = 0.082 m/s. The optimum conditions were found at U g = 0.082 m/s and L/S ratio = 15–30 mL/g for the better gas-liquid interfacial area and the higher carbide slag conversion. The work provided the theoretical basis for the direct aqueous carbonation of the carbide slag and the operation condition optimization.

Packing size effect on the liquid circulation property in an external-loop packed bubble column

Packing size effects on the fluid dynamics in an external-loop packed bubble column with Raschig rings of three different effective diameters (5, 14 and 41 mm) in the riser were investigated. The overall gas holdup, liquid circulating velocity and gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient were respectively measured by volume expansion method, tracer-response method and dynamic oxygen-absorption technique. CFD simulation with the Euler-Euler two-fluid method was used to predict the liquid circulating velocity by treating the packing as a porous medium. Compared to the empty column, the gas holdup was found to increase with the presence of packing, however, the liquid circulating velocity and gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient may increase or decrease. Specifically, the gas holdup increases with the decrease of packing size, while the liquid circulating velocity is on the contrary, which induces the maximal gas-liquid mass transfer rate at packing diameter of 14 mm.

Study on The Effect of Solid Properties on The Hydrodynamics in an Ebullated Bed Reactor

Published data on the hydrodynamics of ebullated- bed reactors (EBRs) used in the H-Oil process are scarce. In the present work, the effect of solid properties (e.g., particle size, and degree of hydrophobicity) on the hydrodynamics and foaminess in a lab-scale cold model of an (EBR) was investigated. 20wt. % MgSO4 solution was utilized as the liquid phase to imitate the hydrodynamic trends in the industrial-scale EBR of the hydro-conversion process. Experimental results depicted that the flow regime of the multiphase system can be readily evaluated by using the pressure drop technique. The turning from the bubbly to the turbulent system is enhanced with diminishing particle size, and decreasing particle hydrophobicity. Moreover, the degree of particle hydrophobicity was inversely proportional to the average gas holdup in the EBR. The reduction in average gas holdup was 7.9 % using hydrophobic particles more than that of the hydrophilic one. In the EBR, it was found that bubble sizes were increased with both gas velocity and the axial location far from the gas distributor while liquid velocity has negative impact on bubble size. The experimental work revealed that hydrophobic particles of smaller size (250 μrm) reduced foaming by 70% using 20 vol. % of solid loading and gas and liquid velocities of 10 and 0.15 cm s-1 respectively. This outcome revealed that the surface of catalyst particles used can be modified to act as foaminess- reducer in fluidized bed hydro conversion reactors.

Effect of Solid Particles on the Gas Hold Up in the Fluidized Bed Columns: Experimental and Mathematical Studies

The present research investigated the effect of solid properties on the gas holdup of the fluidization bed bubble columns (FBCS). All experiments were performed in the constant clear tap water of 80 cm height. The range of solid particle diameters was 0.7 – 2 mm with two different densities of 1075 and 1200 kg/m3, superficial air velocities 4 – 7 cm/s. It was observed that there are proportional relationships between superficial gas velocity and particle diameter with the gas holdup. While an inverse relationship between solid concentration and particle density with the gas holdup. Mathematical and statistical analysis was also used as a powerful way to represent the gas hold up as a function of different operating conditions.