Effect of solid particles on gas hold-up in bubble columns

The gas hold-up in bubble columns containing fluidised plastic particles as solid phase was measured as a function of superficial gas velocity and solids concentration. The effects of particle size, density, wettability and concentration on gas hold-up and bubble coalescence were studied. It was found that the addition of non-wettable solids to the air/water mixture promotes bubble coalescence and, therefore, reduces the gas hold-up, while the addition of wettable solids suppresses bubble coalescence and increases the gas hold-up.     

三相连续环流反应器中氧的液相传质过程

在空气-水-玻璃珠三相连续操作环流反应器中,利用动态溶氧方法研究了表观气速(Ug=0.01~0.13 m/s)、进料浆速(USL=0.001~0.011 m/s)、浆相质量固含率(es=0~30%, w)和固相颗粒大小(dp=59, 200 mm)对环流反应器内氧的液相传质性能的影响. 结果表明,在考察范围内,环流反应器传质系数随表观气速增大而增大,受进料浆速变化的影响较小,随浆相固含率增大呈现先增大后减小的趋势,但在高固含率下(es≥10%, w)的影响不显著;随固相颗粒粒径增大而减小. 同时得到了液相体积传质系数的经验关联式.     

Effect of pseudoplastic behaviour of liquid in co-current three-phase fluidized beds on bed expansion

Gas hold-up and bed expansion measurements were carried out for a bed of glass beads fluidized in Newtonian liquids and non-Newtonian liquids with gas. The value of gas hold-up increased and decreased with increasing particle size and liquid velocity, respectively. The effect of rheological properties on gas hold-up was insignificant and therefore the gas hold-up data for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids were reasonably fitted by the available correlation which had no liquid viscosity term. The bed voidage increased with increasing superficial liquid velocities and superficial gas velocities. The increase of the viscous non-Newtonian flow behaviours resulted in an increase of the bed voidage. The correlation for the bed voidage in three-phase fluidized beds was developed for gas-Newtonian or non-Newtonian liquid–solid three-phase systems by combining the generalized wake model and the correlation for liquid–solid two-phase systems proposed previously by the authors. The predictions for bed voidage were in reasonable agreement with the present experimental data for three-phase systems with Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids in a wide range of Reynolds numbers.     

鼓泡塔气液两相流内部流场的流体力学特性

采用计算流体力学CFD软件对鼓泡塔内部4种表观气速下内部流场的流体力学行为进行模拟。分析了鼓泡塔内部整体气含率及轴截面处（X=0）液相速度随时间的变化情况;并且对比了在不同表观气速下局部气含率和液相速度在不同高度处的径向分布情况。模拟结果表明,随着时间的增大,整体气含率增大速度比较快,到达稳定时间,整体气含率不再增大。在同一高度处局部气含率随着表观气速的增大而增大。H/D<3时,液相循环流动表现为单相循环流;当H/D=3时,表现为双循环流,流型较单相复杂。     

三相流化床的流体力学特性研究

利用空气、水和玻璃珠颗粒为工作介质,对三相流化床流态化操作的流体力学特性进行了研究,主要研究了气体速度、液体速度、颗粒投加量与气含率的关系,以及气体速度与床层高度及气泡直径的关系。     

Critical impeller speed for solid suspension in multi-impeller three phase agitated contactors

The critical impeller speed for solid suspension in gas-liquid-solid systems has been measured in multi-impeller agitated contractors of 0.15 and 0.30 m and ID and 1.0 m height. Three types of impellers, i.e. disk turbine (DT), pitched turbine downflow (PTD) and pitched turbine upflow (PTU) were used. Air, deionised water and sand particles were used as the gas, liquid and solid phases, respectively. The superficial gas velocity and solid loading were varied in the ranges 0–15 mm/s and 0.5 to 10% w/w, respectively. The effects of impeller type and its diameter, particle size and loading and gas flow rate were studied. Some measurements of gas hold-up and mixing time were also made in order to get some insight of the hydrodynamic behaviour of the reactor. The critical impeller speed for solid suspension in the presence of gas (n_isg) was found to be more than that in the absence of the gas and the increase of critical speed correlated well with the gas flow rate. The influence of particle—liquid parameters on solid suspension speed in the gassed system was similar to but relatively weaker than that in the ungassed condition.     

气升式环流反应器在不同体系下的循环液速和局部气含率

在气升式环流反应器中,分别研究了空气—水、空气-0．1％乙醇水溶液和空气-水-活性污泥体系中的循环液速以及气含率随操作条件的变化规律。实验结果表明,循环液速随着表观气速的增加而增大,不同体系中的循环液速差别不大;导流筒内、外不同高度处的局部气含率均呈自下向上增大的趋势,且导流筒内部气含率高于导流筒外部的气含率。体系的聚并特性对平均气含率和局部气含率有较大影响。     

Measurement of the local velocity of the solid phase and the local solid hold-up in a three-phase flow by X-ray based particle tracking velocimetry (XPTV)

The measurement of the local solid velocity and the local solid hold-up in three-phase flows (gas, liquid, solid) is of great interest with regard to the design of three-phase reactors. Moreover, such measurements are necessary for the validation of flow simulations of three-phase flows. The optical methods usually applied for velocity measurements such as particle image velocimetry do not work in three-phase flows. This is due to the opacity of the solid phase or/and because of the reflections and refractions that occur on phase boundaries. Other measurement methods are intrusive and very time consuming. The measurement of the local solid hold-up is even more difficult. The new X-ray based particle tracking velocimetry (XPTV), described in this paper, measures the solid velocity and the solid content simultaneously. This fast working and non-intrusive technique has already been successfully applied in a bubble column to measure the liquid velocity. XPTV is a three-dimensional three-component method. It works independently from void fraction and solid hold-up.     

THE EFFECT OF DISTRIBUTORS ON TWO-PHASE AND THREE-PHASE FLOWS IN VERTICAL COLUMNS

Two-phase air-water and three-phase air-water-solids flows have been investigated in a 0.152 m internal diameter vertical column. Pressure drop across the distributor and average phase hold-up were measured for two-phase and three-phase flows over flow ranges of superficial gas velocity from 0 to 259 m/s and superficial liquid velocity from 0 to 0.0346 m/s. Gas hold-up/pressure-drop ratios were obtained as a function of superficial gas velocity and liquid flow rate. It was found that the bubble cap was better at gas distribution than that of the Koch static mixer in two-phase and three-phase vertical flows. Drift flux to gas hold-up and drift flux to gas flow rate correlations were obtained for two-phase and three-phase vertical flows. Three flow patterns, churn-turbulent, transition and ideal bubble flows, were observed for vertical upflow.     

Tomographic diagnosis of gas maldistribution in gas-solid fluidized beds

Phase distribution is one of the key hydrodynamic parameters useful for the design and performance assessment of fluidized bed dryers (FBDs). It has direct influence on the drying rate, thermal efficiency, residence time distribution and degree of mixing. The quality of fluidization strongly depends on the uniformity of distribution of the fluidizing gas and the physical properties of the material to be fluidized. In the present work, gamma ray tomography (GRT) study was carried out in the form of chordal solid hold-up, which was found to be greatly influenced by the gas distributor design. The performance of a gas distributor due to the prevalent practice of operating at lower values of distributor-to-bed pressure drop ratio was characterized in a 0.15 m diameter fluidized bed dryer over a broad range of superficial gas velocity. The effects of various parameters such as solids loading, particle size and particle density were analyzed with the help of the reconstructed solid hold-up profiles. The fluidization was studied in terms of maldistribution factor (χ), a value of 5% or less can be obtained by properly designing distributor for a given bed loading, particularly for batch fluidized bed dryers. An industrial size fluidized bed dryer of 1 m diameter was also examined tomographically to obtain quantitative information on the solid hold-up distribution within the bed.     

超声波气升式内循环反应器流体力学性能研究

研究了超声波对气升式内循环反应器流体力学性能的促进作用,重点考察比较了有无超声波时气升式反应器性能及超声功率对反应器气含率、液体循环速度、混合时间等的影响。实验证明,超声波的加入对气含率未见影响,有使液体循环速度逐渐减小的趋势,而对混合时间的影响较复杂。在小气速下,小功率超声波促进流体的径向混合,随着超声功率的增加,超声振动阻碍流体的径向混合,因而存在一个最佳的超声功率,并且超声波对混合时间的影响随着表观气速的增加而逐渐减小。提出了该反应器流体力学关联式。     

Gas–liquid flows through porous media in microgravity: Packed Bed Reactor Experiment-2

Modifications were made to the Packed Bed Reactor Experiment (PBRE) and flown on the International Space Station as PBRE-2 to eliminate external pressure oscillations at higher liquid flow rates and the packing diameter was reduced to increase the pressure gradient for lower flows. It is found that gas hold-up is a function of bed history at low liquid and gas flow rates whereas higher gas hold-up and pressure gradients are observed for the test conditions following a liquid only pre-flow compared to the test conditions following a gas only pre-flow period. Over the range of flow rates tested, the capillary force is the dominant contributor to the pressure gradient, which is found to be linear with the superficial liquid velocity but is a much weaker function of the superficial gas velocity and varies inversely with the particle diameter.     

气液固三相外环流反应器相含率分布与气液流动结构

结合电阻层析成像和差压法,以粒径3 mm的聚氨酯(密度1110 kg/m3)和粒径0.5, 1, 3 mm的玻璃珠(密度2460 kg/m3)为固相、空气为气相、水为液相,在直径0.09 m、高3.1 m的气液固三相气升式外环流反应器中考察了固相颗粒密度、粒径、固相含率对上升管和下降管中气含率的影响. 结果表明,当玻璃珠粒径为0.5和1 mm、表观气速ug>0.10 m/s时环流反应器可达到充分发展段. 以玻璃珠为固相时,气含率随固相含量和粒径增大而增大,从层析图像可见,在r/R=0~0.2处出现非导电相的极大值,且加入大颗粒的下降管中气固含率明显大于加入小颗粒的. 根据电阻层析成像的虚拟像,给出了时间序列的气固混合相的流动特征.     

Experimental analysis and development of correlations for gas holdup in high pressure slurry co-current bubble columns

The effect of liquid and gas velocities, solid concentrations, and operating pressure has been studied experimentally in a 15 cm diameter air-water-glass beads bubble column. The superficial gas and liquid velocities varied from 1.0 to 40.00 cm/s and 0 to 16.04 cm/s, respectively, while the solid loading varied from 1 to 9%. The gas holdup in the column was reduced sharply as we switched from batch to co-current mode of operation. At low gas velocity, the effect of liquid velocity was insignificant; while at high gas velocity, increasing liquid velocity decreased the gas holdup. Drift flux approach was applied to quantify the combined effect of liquid and gas velocities over gas holdup. For co-current three phase flows, the gas holdup decreased with increase in solid loading for all pressures. But for batch operations, when solid loading was 5% or more, settling started leading to higher gas holdup. Increasing pressure from atmospheric conditions increased the gas holdup significantly, flattening asymptotically.     

Hydrodynamics and bubble behaviour in a three-phase two-stage internal loop airlift reactor

Local hydrodynamics of a gas–liquid–solid system,such as bubble circulation regime,gas holdup,liquid velocity and axial profile of solid concentration,are studied in a two-stage internal loop airlift reactor.Empirical correlations for gas holdup and liquid velocity are proposed to ease the reactor design and scale-up.Different bubble circulation regimes were displayed in the first(lower) and second(upper) stages.Increasing superficial gas velocity and solid loading can promote regime transition of the second stage,and the gas holdup of the second stage is higher than that of the lower stage.In addition,the effects of solid loading on bubble behaviour are experimentally investigated for each stage.It is found that bubble size in the downcomer decreases with the presence of solid particles,and bubble size distribution widens under higher superficial gas velocity and lower solid loading.     

导流管结构对三相环流反应器相含率的影响

本文阐述了分别在三套内环流反应器内,采用空气—水—石英砂三相物系,导流管外径依次取为75mm和60mm,导流管底隙高度为17mm和30mm.研究了在一定的固相质量分数及初始静液高度下,导流管内局部相含率与表观气速的随动关系以及在固定操作气速下相含率在导流管内的轴向分布情况.经装置间平行比对得出:采用75mm外径的导流管...     

Gas hold-up in non-newtonian solutions in a bubble column with internals

Bubble characteristics and gas hold-up were studied in a two phase (air-aqueous CMC solution) bubble column provided with helical coils and straight tubes as internals. The effects of superficial gas velocity, rheological properties, and volume fraction covered by the internals, on gas hold-up were studied. Hold-up values determined directly and by simultaneous pressure drop measurements matched well. Enhancement of gas hold-up values up to 55 per cent was achieved in systems using internals. The gas hold-up results were also compared with the values obtained from correlations reported in the literature.     

鼓泡塔内气液两相湍流实验研究

介绍了研究鼓泡塔气液两相流的实验装置、实验方法。液相用激光多普勒测速技术(LDV)测量,气相用粒子示踪测速技术(PIV)测量。实验表明,轴向液相速度的径向分布呈塔中心峰值、壁面附近倒流形式,且与气相表观速度大小有关,当液相表观速度一定时,随气相表观速度增大而愈加陡峭,返混也剧烈。当表观液速与表观气速之比小于19．6时,返混区总是存在,且返混区大小与高度有关：当表观液遣与表观气速之比大于19．6时,返混消失,含气率分布由塔中心峰值转向壁面峰值。径向液相速度既与气相表现速度有关又与位置高度有关,在塔底部呈现负值,这意味着向塔轴心方向流动。随着塔高增加。流动方向逐渐转变为向塔壁方向,且又有明显的峰值。     

小型气-液-固流化床液相的停留时间分布

采用脉冲示踪技术,研究了3 mm床径的小型气-液-固流化床内液相停留时间分布。以KCl为示踪剂,液相为去离子水,气相为空气,固相为平均粒径0.123~0.222 mm的玻璃微珠和氧化铝颗粒,测量流化床出口液相的电导率,得到其停留时间分布曲线。结果表明,增大表观液速和表观气速,分布曲线变窄,平均停留时间缩短,Peclet数增大;固相的存在使液相的平均停留时间增长。表观液速1.96~15.70 mm×s^-1,表观气速1.18~1.96 mm×s^-1的条件下,流动接近层流;平均停留时间的范围为（19.6±0.34）s~（48.0±0.92）s,建立的Pe经验关联式对实验结果有较好的预测,偏差在±25%以内。研究结果对于小型三相流化床的设计放大具有指导意义。     

Liquid velocity in a high‐solids‐loading three‐phase external‐loop airlift reactor

BACKGROUND: Airlift reactors are of interest for many different processes, especially for three‐phase systems. In this study the behavior of a high‐loading three‐phase external‐loop airlift reactor was examined. In particular, the effect of parameters such as airflow rate (riser superficial gas velocities between 0.003 and 0.017 m s^?1), solids loading (up to 50%, v/v) on liquid circulation velocity in the air‐water‐alginate beads system as a crucial hydrodynamic parameter was studied. RESULTS: It was observed that increase of the airflow rate resulted in increase of the liquid velocity in the system. The same result but less pronounced was observed by introducing small amounts of solid particles up to 7.5% v/v. However, further introduction of solids caused decrease of the liquid velocity. Laminar regime for the liquid circulation was observed for low gas velocities. Minimum gas velocities for recirculation initiation in the reactor were determined for all solid loadings and linear dependence on the solid content was found. Gas holdups for the three‐phase system were larger than for the two‐phase system in all experiments. A simple model for predicting the liquid circulation velocity in the three‐phase system with high solid loading of low‐density particles was developed. This model is based on the viscosity of integrated medium (solid + liquid) which is a new aspect to analyze this phenomenon. CONCLUSIONS: The developed model shows very good agreement with the experimental results for all solid loadings. It also includes the influence of reactor geometry on the liquid circulation velocity thus enabling optimization. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry