Conceptual design of a novel hydrodynamic cavitation reactor

Hydrodynamic cavitation has been increasingly used as a substitute to conventional acoustic (or ultrasonic) cavitation for process intensification owing to its easy and efficient operation. In this paper, we have put forth conceptual design of a new kind of hydrodynamic cavitation reactor that uses a converging-diverging nozzle for generating pressure variation required for driving radial motion of cavitation bubbles. Moreover, the reactor uses externally introduced bubbles of a suitable gas (argon or air) for cavitation nucleation. This design differs from earlier designs used by researchers where an orifice plate is used for creating cavitating flow. The new design offers a good control over two crucial parameters that affect the cavitation intensity produced, viz. rate of nucleation and nature of pressure variation driving bubble motion. Using numerical simulations of bubble dynamics and associated heat and mass transfer, trends in cavitation intensity produced in the reactor are assessed with varying design parameters. The results of simulation show that the externally introduced bubbles undergo transient motion in the flow through the nozzle generating moderate cavitation intensity. On the basis of results of simulation, some recommendations have been made for the effective design and scale up of the new kind of hydrodynamic cavitation reactors using concept introduced in this paper.     

Application of Hydrodynamic Cavitation to Wastewater Treatment

Hydrodynamic cavitation is a promising application in wastewater treatment due to its simple reactor design and capacity in large‐scale operation. Theoretical studies including the basic mechanism of pollutant degradation, modeling of pressure distribution in the cavitation reactor, and bubble dynamics models coupled with chemical reactions are evaluated. Experimental setups with different cavitation reactors and operation parameters are compared for degrading specific kinds of pollutants. The effort directions for both theoretical and experimental investigations are suggested on the basis of the reviewed contents. Easy large‐scale operation, effective combination with intensified strategies, and capability to deal with biorefractory or toxic compounds contribute to the great potential of hydrodynamic cavitation.     

Significance of Acoustic and Hydrodynamic Cavitations in Enhancing Ozone Mass Transfer

Assessment of both acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitations for intensifying ozone mass transfer was conducted simultaneously. Four process schemes were arranged to evaluate the effect of application of each kind of cavitation as well as both of them, on the ozone mass transfer process. All processes were conducted at pH of 3 to avoid ozone natural self-decomposition initiated by hydroxide ions (OH^?). The chemical and mechanical effects of cavitation were distinguished by using radical scavengers to suppress radical formation. The result showed that hydrodynamic and acoustic cavitations enhanced ozone mass transfer synergistically. The enhancement obtained from the acoustic cavitation was higher than that obtained from the hydrodynamic cavitation, and the chemical effects of cavitation were much significant than that of mechanical effects. The enhancement obtained due to chemical effects of cavitation was about twice the enhancement obtained due to mechanical effects when only one type of cavitation was combined with ozonation. Combination of both type of cavitation and ozonation gave the enhancement obtained due to chemical effect of 3.68 times that obtained due to mechanical effects.     

Intensification principle of a new three-phase catalytic slurry reactor. Part I: Performance characterisation

This paper presents the concept and the performances of a mini horizontal stirred tank reactor, used for hydrogenation reaction. A simple analytical model based on characteristic times of heat and mass transfer illustrates the intensification principle and shows that the relevant intensification parameter is the mass to heat transfer characteristics times ratio. The proof of concept is made through a small scale reactor named RAPTOR^® (French acronym for Reactor with Polyvalent Rectilinear Stirred Reactor with Optimised Transfer). The mass transfer performances are measured and compared to conventional stirred tank reactor and other multiple impeller continuous reactors. In a following second paper, a comparative study is proposed to evaluate the eco-efficiency and the techno-economic advantages of a continuous process involving a RAPTOR^® versus a classical batch process based on a stirred reactor.     

Enhanced CO2 Methanation by New Microstructured Reactor Concept and Design

A novel multichannel minireactor with channel internal diameter in the range of millimeters has been conceptually designed and constructed. Its configuration confers to the new concept reactor some features and advantages compared to conventional fixed-bed reactors g.e. better mass-transfer, avoid hot-spots formation, increased performance (10–20%). Consequently, this new reactor concept is ideal to be applied to exothermic reactions such as the Sabatier reaction that demands continuous removal of the heat produced to avoid hot-spot formation and the sintering of the catalyst. Thanks to its configuration, this reactor could control effectively the heat generated by the reaction and several tests were carried out to validate the reactor features. The results obtained demonstrate that the catalysts activity in the reaction is improved with the application of the novel reactor respect the conventional fixed- and fluidized-bed ones and neither catalyst sintering, nor pressure drop was appreciated during the catalytic tests. At the best reaction conditions, Tecnalia’s multichannel minireactor can handle 820 Nm³/h of CO₂ per square meter of channel section showing the enormous potential of the new reactor concept.

     

Ultrasound cavitation technique for up-gradation of vacuum residue

Generally, upgradation of the petroleum residue to valuable product is done through the catalytic and thermal cracking using very high temperature and pressure. The ultrasound assisted cavitation is the novel technique to intensify the cracking of asphaltene present in the vacuum residual feedstock.The up-gradation of residue was carried out with application of low frequency (24 kHz), high intensity ultrasound under atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature in a batch reactor.In the present work, vacuum residue, having high viscosity was subjected to acoustic cavitation for different reaction times (15 min to 90 min) and with different probe diameters at ambient temperature and pressure. The effect of ultrasound on the upgradation of residue (asphaltene degradation) has been studied with surfactant as emulsifier as well as without surfactant. Also, the effect of acoustic cavitation has been studied on the physico-chemical properties of residue.The study revealed that the asphaltene content of the vacuum residue decreased from 13.5 (initial asphaltene present in residue) to 7% (wt.%). It has been also observed that the physico-chemical properties of residue reduced with the influence of ultrasound energy.     

Intensification of cavitational activity in sonochemical reactors using different additives: Efficacy assessment using a model reaction

Sonochemical reactors offer excellent promise for the intensification of different chemical processing applications. The current work deals with intensification of cavitational activity using different additives with an objective of decreasing the processing cost as well as enhancing the applicability of sonochemical reactors for different applications. Potassium iodide oxidation has been used as a model reaction. Experiments have been carried out in a laboratory scale ultrasonic horn reactor. The effects of different additives such as air, solid particles (cupric oxide and titanium dioxide), salts (sodium chloride and sodium nitrite) and radical promoters (hydrogen peroxide, ferrous sulphate, iron metal, carbon tetrachloride and t-butanol) on the degradation of potassium iodide have been investigated. Combination of additives has also been investigated for examining the possible synergistic effects in comparison to the use of individual additions. It has been observed that based on the type of additive, optimum concentration needs to be selected and it may not be desirable always to use different additives in combination. It is desirable to select an additive which can give additional reaction mechanism in the system to aid the desired application under question.     

Inorganic membranes and membrane reactors

The inorganic membrane reactor is a combined unit operation of chemical reactions and membrane separations. By having a membrane reactor, the downstream separation load can be reduced. Also, the yields can be increased and conversion can be improved for equilibrium limited reactions. However, many of the industrial chemical reactions take place at high temperature that the conventional polymeric membranes cannot withstand. A great deal of research has been done recently to develop ion-conducting ceramic membranes. Many of these have been successfully employed to form membrane reactors for many industrially relevant chemical reactions, such as hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, oxidation, coupled reactions, and decomposition reactions. An overview is given for the area of inorganic membrane preparations and membrane reactors. Many examples of petrochemical interests are presented, including hydrocarbon conversions and fuel cell applications.     

Economic feasibility of silica and palladium composite membranes for industrial dehydrogenation reactions

This article addresses the economic feasibility of silica and palladium composite membranes for gaseous dehydrogenation reaction schemes. Unlike other methodologies addressed so far, this work presents the economic assessment of dehydrogenation reaction schemes using a conceptual design based simulation methodology for the comparative economic assessment of membrane reactors with conventional reactors. The suggested methodology is applied to two industrially prominent reaction schemes namely styrene (from ethylbenzene) and propylene (from propane) production using silica and palladium composite membrane reactors. Various sub-cases studied in this work include the influence of membrane area per reaction zone volume, reaction zone temperature, reaction and permeation zone pressure, membrane thickness and sweep gas flow rate on process economics. Based on this work, the propylene production scheme is evaluated to provide 60–70% excess profits using membrane reactors when compared with the conventional reactor based technology. However, the gross profit profiles for both conventional reactor and membrane reactor configurations have been found to be similar for styrene production case. For all cases, the cost contribution of membranes and other auxiliary equipment is estimated not to exceed 20% of the total costs. In addition, similar economic performance has been observed for both silica and palladium membranes. Based on these studies, it has been concluded that the industrial applicability of membrane reactors is economically suitable for those dehydrogenation reactions that enable significant conversion enhancement with respect to the conventional reactor technologies.     

Degradation of Chlorocarbons Driven by Hydrodynamic Cavitation

To provide an efficient lab‐scale device for the investigation of the degradation of organic pollutants driven by hydrodynamic cavitation, the degradation kinetics of chloroform and carbon tetrachloride and the increase of conductivity in aqueous solutions were measured. These are values which were not previously available. Under hydrodynamic cavitation conditions, the degradation kinetics for chlorocarbons was found to be pseudo first‐order. Meanwhile, C‐H and C‐Cl bonds are broken, and Cl₂, Cl^., Cl^– and other ions released can increase the conductivity and enhance the oxidation of KI in aqueous solutions. The upstream pressures of the orifice plate, the cavitation number, and the solution temperature have substantial effects on the degradation kinetics. A decreased cavitation number can result in more cavitation events and enhances the degradation of chlorocarbons and/or the oxidation of KI. A decrease in temperature is generally favorable to the cavitation chemistry. Organic products from the degradation of carbon tetrachloride and chloroform have demonstrated the formation and recombination of free radicals, e.g., CCl₄, C₂Cl₄, and C₂Cl₆ are produced from the degradation of CHCl₃. CHCl₃ and C₂Cl₆ are produced from the degradation of CCl₄. Both the chemical mechanism and the reaction kinetics of the degradation of chlorocarbons induced by hydrodynamic cavitation are consistent with those obtained from the acoustic cavitation. Therefore, the technology of hydrodynamic cavitation should be a good candidate for the removal of organic pollutants from water.     

Chemical effect of hydrodynamic cavitation: Simulation and experimental comparison

The chemical effect of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) in a Venturi reactor from both the theoretical and the experimental point of view is dealt. A mathematical model is presented to simulate the global production of hydroxyl radicals; it is based on a set of ordinary differential equations that account for the hydrodynamics, mass diffusion, heat exchange, and chemical reactions inside the bubbles. Experimentally, the degradation of p‐nitrophenol (initial concentration 0.15 g dm^?3) has been conducted in a lab scale Venturi reactor at inlet pressure ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 MPa and has been used to estimate the hydroxyl radical production. The optimum configuration, suggested by numerical simulations, has been experimentally confirmed. Thanks to the empirical validation, this novel modeling approach can be considered as a theoretical tool to identify the best configuration of HC operating parameters. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 2566–2572, 2014     

规整结构催化剂及反应器研究进展

介绍了一种新颖的规整结构催化剂。它在废气排放处理等气相催化反应中已表现出优于常规催化剂的优良催化性能,在气液固多相催化反应领域的研究也表明它能够应用于更多的催化反应。将这种催化剂和反应器结构特性与常规催化反应中应用的固体催化剂和反应器进行了比较,结果表明它有可能替代浆态床和固定床反应器,具有良好的应用前景。     

Highly active and stable Rh/MgOAl2O3 catalysts for methane steam reforming

Highly active and coke-resistant Rh catalysts were developed for methane steam reforming in microchannel chemical reactors. Rh loading was optimized on a stable MgOAl₂O₃ support to improve the volumetric productivity for methane conversion. Catalyst activities were stable over a wide range of steam/carbon ratios. In particular, experimental results demonstrated that Rh/MgOAl₂O₃ catalysts are extremely active for methane steam reforming and are resistant to coke formation at stoichiometric steam/carbon ratio of 1 for over 14 h time-on-stream with no sign of deactivation. Methane steam reforming activities on this catalyst is compared in both a microchannel reactor and a conventional micro-tubular reactor. Significant performance enhancement was observed in microchannel reactors owing to improved heat and mass transfer.     

Comparison of the performance of a direct-contact bubble reactor and an indirectly heated tubular reactor for solar-aided methane dry reforming employing molten salt

A theoretical approach is presented for the comparison of two different atmospheric pressure reactors—a direct-contact bubble reactor (DCBR) and an indirectly heated tubular reactor (IHTR)—to evaluate the reactor performance in terms of heat transfer and available catalytic active surface area. The model considers the catalytic endothermic reactions of methane dry reforming that proceeds in both reactors by employing molten salts at elevated temperatures (700–900 °C) in the absence of catalyst deactivation effects. The methane conversion process is simulated for a single reactor using both a reaction kinetics model and a heat transfer model. A well-tested reaction kinetics model, which showed an acceptable agreement with the empirical observations, was implemented to describe the methane dry reforming. In DCBR, the heat is internally transferred by direct contact with the three phases of the system: the reactant gas bubbles, the heat carrier molten salts and the solid catalyst (Ni-Al₂O₃). In contrast, the supplied heat in the conventional shell-and-tube heat exchanger of the IHTR is transferred across an intervening wall. The results suggest a combination system of DCBR and IHTR would be a suitable configuration for process intensification associated with higher thermal efficiency and cost reduction.     

Modeling of hydrodynamic cavitation reactors: a unified approach

An attempt has been made to present a unified theoretical model for the cavitating flow in a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor using the nonlinear continuum mixture model for two-phase flow as the basis. This model has been used to describe the radial motion of bubble in the cavitating flow in two geometries in hydrodynamic cavitation reactors, viz., a venturi tube and an orifice plate. Simulations of the bubble dynamics in a venturi flow demonstrate the stable oscillatory radial bubble motion due to a linear pressure gradient. Due to an additional pressure gradient due to turbulent velocity fluctuations the radial bubble motion in case of an orifice flow is a combination of both stable and oscillatory type. The results of numerical simulations have been explained on the basis of analogy between hydrodynamic cavitation and acoustic cavitation.     

Comparison of effectiveness of acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation in combined treatment schemes for degradation of dye wastewaters

Cavitation has shown promising applications but individually it cannot prove to be an energy efficient approach for wastewater treatment. The present study reports the use of combined treatment strategies based on cavitation and different oxidizing agents (H₂O₂, Na₂S₂O₈ and NaOCl). Decolorization of two biorefractory dye pollutants viz. orange acid-II (OA-II) and brilliant green (BG) has been investigated as model systems for comparison of the effectiveness of cavitating conditions generated by acoustic and hydrodynamic modes. The optimum conditions for temperature, pH and power dissipation in the case of acoustic cavitation and inlet pressure in the case of hydrodynamic cavitation have been established initially. At the optimum operating conditions, the effect of combination of different oxidizing agents has been examined with an objective of obtaining the maximum decolorization. Basic extent of decolorization due to the use of oxidizing agents has also been quantified by performing experiments in the absence of cavitating conditions. The obtained results for cavitational yields indicate that the decolorization is most efficient for the combination of hydrodynamic cavitation and chemical oxidation as compared to chemical oxidation and acoustic cavitation based combination for both the dye effluents.     

生物柴油新反应器及其应用

生物柴油是石化柴油的重要补充.用传统的搅拌釜和管式反应器制备生物柴油,存在反应速率慢、转化率低的问题.从提高反应速率和转化率两方面综述了生物柴油新反应器的研究进展.提高反应速率的反应器包括:微波反应器、空化反应器、旋转床反应器、振荡流反应器、高剪切反应器、静态反应器、微反应器和液液膜反应器.提高转化率的反应器包括:反应/分离器、反应蒸馏反应器和膜反应器.比较了它们的优势和缺陷.提出联合使用几种技术,将强化传质与分离技术进行有效整合,使反应器小型化并缩短工艺流程,以建立适应未来的生产效率高的便携式生物柴油厂.     

Simulation and thermodynamic analysis of conventional and oxygen permeable CPO reactors

A one-dimensional steady-state heterogeneous model has been used to simulate the conventional CPO reactor. With the mechanism of O₂ permeable membrane, the model has been developed to simulate O₂ membrane reactor. The output temperature and the mole flow rates of different species in the tube side and the shell side can be calculated. They are the basis for the exergy analysis of the conventional CPO reactor with air, the conventional CPO reactor with pure O₂, and the O₂ permeable membrane CPO reactor. The simulation and exergy analysis results indicate that when the inlet conditions are the same, for a given methane conversion, the exergy efficiencies η₂ and η₁ of conventional CPO reactor with pure oxygen is lowest among the three reactors, because of the large amount of accumulative exergy required for obtaining pure oxygen.The exergy efficiencies η₁ and η₂ of membrane reactor are comparable with conventional CPO reactor with air and much higher than conventional CPO reactor with pure oxygen. As the membrane reactors can carry out simultaneous separation and reaction, in the mean time, removal of nitrogen from the product stream can be accomplished; the membrane reactor has advantages compared to other types of reactors.The operation of the membrane CPO reactor is more favourable when the inlet temperature is increased and the operation pressure is decreased from a thermodynamic point of view.     

Flow regime maps and optimization thereby of hydrodynamic cavitation reactors

Hydrodynamic cavitation reactors are known to intensify diverse physical and chemical processes. In this article, flow regime maps have been proposed that give an overview of the operation of hydrodynamic cavitation reactor for different combinations of design and process parameters. These maps are based on simulations of cavitating flow using mathematical model that couples continuum mixture model with diffusion limited model. Specific flow regimes have been identified depending on the energetics of the collapse of cavitation bubble as sonophysical, sonochemical, and stable oscillatory (no physical or chemical effect). The radial motion of the bubble in the cavitating flow is governed by the mean and turbulent pressure gradients, which in turn, are decided by the design parameters. An analysis of variations in the pressure gradients in the cavitating flow with design parameters has been given. The flow regime maps form a useful tool for identification of most optimum set of design parameters for hydrodynamic cavitation reactor for a physical or chemical process. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 58: 3858–3866, 2012     

Photodegradation of cellulose under UV light catalysed by TiO2

BACKGROUND: Since natural cellulose is an insoluble, crystalline microfibril, which is difficult to react with other compounds, most reactions related with cellulose are heterogeneous. The methods of cellulose degradation include acid hydrolysis, thermal degradation, alkaline degradation and catalytic degradation. Photocatalysis is a very powerful process. RESULTS: With 10 g cellulose dissolved in 100 mL ZnCl₂ solution (66%), the 5‐hydroxymethyl furfural yield in the corrugated plate photocatalytic reactor reached 3.87 g L^?1 under the following experimental conditions: 2 h irradiation under ultraviolet (UV) lamp (power—21 W), nine TiO₂ coating cycles, and 42° corrugated plate angle. CONCLUSION: Owing to the enhancement of catalyst surface area illuminated by UV light and the large number of photons captured on the catalyst surface, the energy efficiency per mass (EE/M) of the corrugated plate photocatalytic reactor for photocatalytic degradation of cellulose was 10.9 kWh kg^?1. This is therefore an effective technology for 5‐HMF preparation from cellulose. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry