Liquid-phase mixing in external-loop airlift bioreactors

Mixing time, circulation time and downcomer linear liquid velocity were measured in two sizes of external-loop airlift bioreactors with Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. The mixing time increased as a result of an increase of non-Newtonian characteristics. However, the liquid circulation time was affected only slightly by non-Newtonian flow behaviour. A semi-empirical correlation for circulation time in external-loop airlift bioreactors was proposed. The proposed correlation was compared with the present experimental results and those in the literature. Reasonable agreement was obtained between the predicted and experimental values of circulation times. The downcomer liquid velocity was almost independent of the downcomer-to-rise cross-sectional area ratio. The correlation based on the concept of an eddy diffusivity predicted downcomer liquid velocities in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.     

特型螺带桨叶在高粘弹性和非弹性流体中的搅拌功率

本文研究了层流区域有较大叶片截面积的特型双螺带──锚桨叶在高粘弹性和非弹性流体中的搅拌功率，测定了Ｋ_ｐ和Ｋ_ｓ，采用广义二阶流体本构方程导出搅拌功率计算式参数ｆ_ｓ和Ｆ_（１ａｃ）由实验数据确定。该式适用于牛顿型流体、假塑性和粘弹性流体的功率消耗计算。     

Hydrodynamic Modelling of Internal Loop Airlift Reactor Applying Drift‐Flux Model in Bubbly Flow Regime

A new model for the liquid circulation rates in airlift reactor (ALR) is presented. The model is based on the energy balance for the flow loop (riser, turn riser‐downcomer, downcomer, and turn downcomer‐riser) coupled with a drift flux theory of two‐phase flow gas‐liquid system, considering a bubbly flow regime. The predicted values of the liquid circulation rates by the developed model are compared with experimental results performed in a 22 dm³ internal loop airlift reactor and with the results obtained in the literatures. The proposed model predicted the experimental results very well. Slip velocity relationship based on the drift flux model was proposed; including the gas holdup, bubble size and the liquid physical properties. The predicted slip velocity was similar to that obtained from the literature. The study revealed that appropriate arrangements of internal bioreactor parts can positively influence the liquid circulation velocity at the same energy consumption. The proposed models are useful in the design; scale up and characterization of the internal loop airlift reactors, and provides a direct method of predicting hydrodynamic behaviour in gas‐liquid airlift reactors.     

A mathematical model for unsteady-state oxygen transfer in an external-loop airlift reactor

A mathematical model for simulation of unsteady-state oxygen transfer in an external-loop airlift reactor was developed. The airlift reactor was represented by a number of interconnected tanks, each of which was assumed to be well mixed. The effect of gas circulation rate on the oxygen transfer was considered. The model can be used for the determination of mass transfer performance of the airlift reactor in which the whole liquid phase cannot be assumed to be fully backmixed. The simulation results showed a good agreement with experimental results.     

气升式陶瓷膜-生物反应器渗透通量的实验研究

为了降低陶瓷膜-生物反应器的能耗、同时提高膜的渗透通量，本文将气升式外循环引入膜-生物反应器的设计。实验条件下，搭建了气升式陶瓷膜-生物反应器装置，研究了导气管直径、气升位置、气速、气体性质等循环条件对渗透通量的影响；并在相同条件下与液体不循环的过滤相比较，证明采用气升循环可以较大提高膜的渗透通量。     

螺带桨叶在粘弹性流体中的搅拌功率

本文研究了层流区内外单螺带-锚、四螺带-锚桨叶在粘弹性流体中的搅拌功率消耗。与牛顿型流体比较结果表明,流体的弹性对搅拌功率有较大的影响。Boger流体较牛顿型流体的功率消耗大50％以上。 本文采用了广义二阶流体本构方程导出搅拌功率计算式: 用实验数据确定f_3和F_(1av)~*,得到了适用于牛顿型流体、假塑性流体和粘弹性流体的功率计算式。计算结果与实验值比较接近。     

带有内外组合桨的搅拌设备内流场的数值研究

利用滑移网格法计算了以一定转速比反向旋转的内外组合桨搅拌的搅拌设备内的流场,工作介质分别选取98％甘油和1．5％(wt)CMC水溶液。通过对单桨与内外组合桨产生的流场进行对比,研究了搅拌设备内不同高度处速度、速度变化率、表观粘度及剪切速率的分布特点。结果表明：采用内外组合桨,介质为中粘牛顿流体时,在罐内主体区远离罐壁区域径向速度受到一定削弱,但在某些局部区域被增强,而对于假塑性流体径向速度总体上得到增强。采用内外组合桨可以加强轴向循环,改善搅拌设备近壁区的流动状况,且对假塑性流体流动状况的改善要优于中粘牛顿流体,另外还可以显著地提高搅拌设备内的剪切速率,同时使剪切速率的分布比较均匀。     

缩放型导流筒气升内环流反应器液体循环速度的研究

研究气升式内环流生物反应器液体循环速度,分别采用一种传统圆柱型导流筒和三种不同结构参数缩放型导流筒,试验条件分别为空气－水和空气－ＣＭＣ两相系统以及空气－水－树脂三相系统,试验结果表明,对于空气－水和空气－ＣＭＣ溶液两相系统以及空气－水－树脂三相系统,液体循环速度随能气速度提高而增大;     

Mixing and mass transfer in concentric-tube airlift fermenters: Newtonian and non-newtonian media

The mixing and mass transfer characteristics in concentric-tube airlift gas-liquid contactors intended for possible use as fermenters are discussed. Liquid velocities, circulation times, gas hold-ups, and volumetric mass transfer coefficients were measured in water and aqueous carboxy methyl cellulose solutions. Measurements were made in an inverted conical-bottom device with draft tubes of three different diameters. An increase of liquid velocities at the column axis and a corresponding decrease of volumetric mass transfer coefficients due to the introduction of draft tubes were found for water as the liquid medium. For the non-Newtonian fluids, a complicating influence of the draft tubes on liquid velocity and mass transfer, which is attributed to a combination of factors related to improvement of liquid circulation and reduction of apparent viscosity, was observed.     

Friction and heat and mass transfer for turbulent pseudoplastic non-newtonian fluid flows in rough pipes

Friction factor and heat and mass transfer coefficient correlations are developed for turbulent pseudoplastic (purely viscous or inelastic) non-Newtonian fluids flowing through rough pipes. A correlation for friction factor which is applicable in the region of transition from the smooth to the fully-rough regime is proposed. It is obtained by adding the two correlations for the limiting situations, i.e. smooth pipes and fully-rough pipes. The predictions of the proposed correlation are compared with published experimental data and other previous correlations. A model for heat and mass transfer is developed on the basis of the Levich three-zone model. It is found that the proposed model is capable of predicting satisfactorily heat and mass transfer coefficients for Newtonian and pseudoplastic non-Newtonian fluid flow in rough pipes.     

Liquid circulation time in concentric-tube airlift columns with non-newtonian fermentation broths

Liquid circulation times were measured in a 40-dm³ concentric-tube airlift fermenter with simulated media over a wide range of rheological properties. Circulation times decreased with increasing shear-thinning, and the influence of draft-tube geometry on circulation time was found to depend on the shear-thinning of the media. A semi-theoretical correlation for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fermentation media was developed.     

大颗粒三相环隙气升式环流反应器流体力学行为

研究了大颗粒体系气升式环流反应器的流体力学行为,考察了表观气速和颗粒质量分数对床层膨胀高度、循环液速和固含率分布的影响。实验结果表明,按颗粒的运动状态不同可以将反应器内的流动分为3个区域,即固定床区域、膨胀床区域和循环床区域,各流动区域内的流动行为存在显著差异。随着颗粒质量浓度的增大,起始流化气速和最小循环气速均显著增大。基于三相流化床的流化模型和环流反应器的特点建立了相应的数学模型,对大颗粒三相气升式环流反应器的起始流化气速和最小循环气速进行了预测,模型预测值与实验测量值吻合良好。     

流体流变性对错位六弯叶桨流场特性的影响

利用计算流体力学(CFD)的方法,以高黏牛顿流体和假塑性非牛顿流体为研究对象,对错位六弯叶桨在层流域的搅拌流场特性进行了研究。结果表明:数值计算得到的功率值与实验测量值吻合较好,搅拌雷诺数对假塑性流体搅拌流场的量纲一速度和切应变速率影响较大,因此提高转速对改变流场的速度及切应变速率分布是一个有效的办法;而流体的流变性只对假塑性流体的量纲一速度有明显影响,对切应变速率影响较小,当流变指数n<0.3时与n基本无关。当流动由层流向过渡流转变时,搅拌桨的流量准数及泵送效率有显著提高;假塑性流体的流变指数降低时,其泵送效率显著下降。研究进一步认识了错位桨在不同流体中的搅拌流场特点,为高黏假塑性流体搅拌桨的设计、应用以及开发新型搅拌桨提供了参考。     

CFD simulation and experimental measurement of gas holdup and liquid interstitial velocity in internal loop airlift reactor

This paper documents experiments and CFD simulations of the hydrodynamics of our two-phase (water, air) laboratory internal loop airlift reactor (40 l). The experiments and simulations were aimed at obtaining global flow characteristics (gas holdup and liquid interstitial velocity in the riser and in the downcomer) in our particular airlift configurations. The experiments and simulations were done for three different riser tubes with variable length and diameter. Gas (air) superficial velocities in riser were in range from 1 to 7.5 cm/s. Up to three circulation regimes were experimentally observed (no bubbles in downcomer, bubbles in downcomer but not circulating, and finally the circulating regime). The primary goal was to test our CFD simulation setup using only standard closures for interphase forces and turbulence, and assuming constant bubble size is able to capture global characteristics of the flow for our experimental airlift configurations for the three circulation regimes, and if the simulation setup could be later used for obtaining the global characteristic for modified geometries of our original airlift design or for different fluids. The CFD simulations were done in commercial code Fluent 6.3 using algebraic slip mixture multiphase model. The secondary goal was to test the sensitivity of the simulation results to different closures for the drag coefficient and the resulting bubble slip velocity and also for the turbulence. In addition to the simulations done in Fluent, simulation results using different code (CFX 12.1) and different model (full Euler–Euler) are also presented in this paper. The experimental measurements of liquid interstitial velocity in the riser and in the downcomer were done by evaluating the response to the injection of a sulphuric acid solution measured with pH probes. The gas holdup in the riser and downcomer was measured with the U-tube manometer. The results showed that the simulation setup works quite well when there are no bubbles present in the downcomer, and that the sensitivity to the drag closure is rather low in this case. The agreement was getting worse with the increase of gas holdup in the downcomer. The use of different multiphase model in the different code (CFX) gave almost the same results as the Fluent simulations.     

电导探针法测量高固含体系循环液速和气含率

基于电导探针和示踪法,开发了一种利用电导探针同时测量环流反应器中高固含体系下循环液速和局部气含率的方法. 利用2个单针电导探头测量脉冲注入KCl饱和溶液后两路电导信号的先后响应,测得两路液体的停留时间分布曲线. 通过对单路信号进行幅值分析可以得到气含率,与压差法相比测量值误差小于5%;通过对过滤气泡信号后的液体的停留时间分布曲线进行相关处理可得到循环液速,测量值与超声多普勒(UDV)的测量结果一致. 实验研究了外环流反应器中操作条件对气含率和循环液速的影响. 结果表明,低表观气速下气含率沿径向分布较均匀,高于0.1 m/s后逐渐呈抛物线型分布,整体随表观气速增加而增大;循环液速随表观气速增加近似线性增大,随固含率增加而减小.     

A Dynamical Systems Approach to Mixing in Circulating Flows

Circulating flows are found in a variety of mixing equipment such as stirred tanks and airlift loop vessels. This paper presents a different route towards modeling the mixing in circulating flows. This route is based on an innovative use of Poincaré maps and suspended flows, concepts which are found in dynamical systems theory. The mixing model is developed for an arbitrary recirculating flow and uses a circulation time distribution function that is incorporated into the transport equations for an inert tracer injected into the flow system. Two cases are used to study the application of the mixing model in this work. The first case addresses the question of whether the mixing model can be used to study airlift vessels differing in scale and the second case highlights the application of the model to a standard stirred tank. In the first case, model predictions have been compared with experimental data obtained from two geometrically similar airlift systems of different volumes and good agreement is observed. A single parameter correlation for the mixing time is also proposed. In the second case, computational fluid dynamics was used to obtain the flow field of a standard stirred tank fitted with a six bladed Rushton turbine. From the flow field, the distribution of the circulation times is extracted and used to determine the tracer concentration profile in the stirred tank. Good agreement between the model predictions and published experimental data is observed thus indicating that the mixing model shows promise as a technique for studying the mixing in stirred tanks.     

Erweiterung der Auslegungsverfahren von Rührern und Anwendung an einem Propellerviskosimeter

The design procedure of mixers to agitate non‐Newtonian flow is commonly based on several correlation methods that associate the power consumption of agitating newtonian flow with the power of agitating non‐Newtonian flow. Therefore, the knowledge of the viscosity function of the non‐Newtonian fluid is necessary. For the agitation of fluids with solid fractions, the viscosity is usually unknown and the methods are not applicable. Here, a method to determine the viscosity of pseudoplastic fluids with a solid fraction is presented.     

Performance of an integrated reactor with airlift loop and sedimentation for municipal wastewater treatment: A 150 m3/d pilot case study

A newly developed bio-reactor design for municipal sewage treatment was evaluated on a pilot scale (150 m³/d). The reactor system included both anaerobic/anoxic and aerobic treatment stages with external/internal airlift circulation loops integrated with a central sedimentation chamber. The design was conceived to enhance the removal of organic compounds and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) within a smaller footprint than existing treatment processes. The downcomer of the internal circulation loop is integrated with the sedimentation tank facilitating high efficiency solid-liquid separation in a compact configuration. The external/internal airlift circulation stages increase the potential for bio-reactivity, while reducing energy consumption for process flows. Overall, the integrated configuration reduces the footprint required compared to conventional systems with equivalent hydraulic loads, ie, hydraulic retention time of ~12.8 hours with a hydraulic loading area of 10.3 m³/d/m². The trial run data indicated removal efficiencies for COD, phosphorous, ammonia, and total nitrogen of 94.5%, 94.5%, 96.8%, and 78.6% respectively. Moreover, the treatment system also demonstrated a robust capacity to handle a wide range of COD influent concentrations (ie, ~ 120-860 mg/L).     

Gas Hold‐up and Liquid Circulation Velocity in Gas‐Liquid‐Solid Airlift Reactors

Simple empirical correlations for gas hold‐up and liquid circulation velocity in two‐ and three‐phase airlift reactors are presented in this paper and their applicability has been demonstrated. The empirical correlations are good alternatives to the semi‐theoretical drift‐flux approach to predictions of gas hold‐ups and liquid circulation velocities in airlift reactors.     

MASS TRANSFER AND HYDRODYNAMICS IN AN AIRLIFT REACTOR WITH VISCOUS NON-NEWTONIAN FLUID

In an internal loop airlift reactor of 55L working volume,the gas-liquid volumetric oxygenmass transfer coefficient k_Lα,gas holdup ε_G and liquid circulation time t_c were measured with the sol-ution of carboxymethyl cellulose(CMC)to simulate the performance of a reactor with highly viscousbroth.Electric conductivity and oxygen probes were used to measure the local gas holdup,liquidcirculation time and oxygen mass transfer coefficient in the individual sections of the reactor(riser,downcomer and the gas-liquid separating section at the top of the reactor)and the total reactor,respectively.The values of k_Lα for the riser,downcomer and separation sections of the reactor were alsoestimated and compared with that for the total reactor.The results show that,both k_Lα and ε_G in-crease but t_c decreases with increasing gas velocity.Correlations and comparisons with works reportedin the literature are also presented.Data show that the methods developed for k_Lα measurements inthe individual section and