Pressure drop and mixing behaviour of non‐Newtonian fluids in a static mixing unit

Static or motionless mixers have received wide application in chemical and allied industries due to their low cost and high efficiency. The pressure drop and mixing behaviour of such mixers have been widely studied. However, the available information for non‐Newtonian fluids is scanty. The results of pressure drop and mixing studies conducted with a locally made motionless mixer (MALAVIYA mixer) and four non‐Newtonian fluids—aq. CMC, PVA, and PEG solutions are reported in this article. The new mixer causes less pressure drop compared to some of the commercial mixers. Mixing behaviour of the unit is more closer to plug flow and a two‐parameter model correlates the dispersion data.     

Gas hold‐up estimation in bubble columns using passive acoustic waveforms with neural networks

Passive acoustic waveforms produced experimentally from a bench‐scale two‐phase bubble column were recorded using a miniature hydrophone at three axial positions. The generated acoustic waveforms were processed and trained using artificial intelligence against global gas hold‐up measurements. Two neural network architectures, the radial basis function (RBF) neural network and the recurrent Elman neural network, were employed. Both neural network techniques achieved accurate gas hold‐up estimation, characterised by low mean square errors of 2.70 and 1.68% for the RBF and recurrent Elman networks respectively. The designed and trained neural networks were found to be a powerful tool for learning and replicating complex two‐phase patterns. Passive acoustic waveforms were found to be a useful measuring technique for gas hold‐up estimation in bubble columns under moderate operating conditions. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

鼓泡床内气体分布器设计及其对水力学的影响

本文比较了目前常用的几种分布器，通过照像法观察了三种分布器（单孔板、多孔板和烧结金属板）上的气泡形成过程，然后测定了这三种分布器的于板压降和湿板压降，并就它们对水力学条件的影响进行了考察。其结果对鼓泡床内分布器的设计具有一定的参考价值。     

Gas Holdup and Solid‐Liquid Mass Transfer in Newtonian and non‐Newtonian Fluids in Bubble Columns

Gas holdup and surface‐liquid mass transfer rate in a bubble column have been experimentally investigated. De‐mineralized water, 0.5 and 1.0% aqueous solutions of carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC), and 60% aqueous propylene glycol have been used as the test liquids. Effects of column diameter, liquid height to column diameter ratio, superficial gas velocity and liquid phase viscosity on gas holdup and mass transfer rate are studied. Generalized correlations for the average gas holdup and wall to liquid heat and mass transfer coefficients are proposed. These are valid for both Newtonian and pseudoplastic non‐Newtonian fluids.     

The effect of gas‐liquid counter‐current operation on gas hold‐up in bubble columns using electrical resistance tomography

BACKGROUND: In order to improve the performance of a counter‐current bubble column, radial variations of the gas hold‐ups and mean hold‐ups were investigated in a 0.160 m i.d. bubble column using electrical resistance tomography with two axial locations (Plane 1 and Plane 2). In all experiments the liquid phase was tap water and the gas phase air. The superficial gas velocity was varied from 0.02 to 0.25 m s^?1, and the liquid velocity varied from 0 to 0.01 m s^?1. The effect of liquid velocity on the distribution of mean hold‐ups and radial gas hold‐ups is discussed. RESULTS: The gas hold‐up profile in a gas–liquid counter‐current bubble column was determined by electrical resistance tomography. The liquid velocity slightly influences the mean hold‐up and radial hold‐up distribution under the selected operating conditions and the liquid flow improves the transition gas velocity from a homogeneous regime to a heterogeneous regime. Meanwhile, the radial gas hold‐up profiles are steeper at the central region of the column with increasing gas velocity. Moreover, the gas hold‐up in the centre of the column becomes steeper with increasing liquid velocity. CONCLUSIONS: The value of mean gas hold‐ups slightly increases with increasing downward liquid velocity, and more than mean gas hold‐ups in batch and co‐current operation. According to the experimental results, an empirical correlation for the centreline gas hold‐up is obtained based on the effects of gas velocity, liquid velocity, and ratio of axial height to column diameter. The values calculated in this way are in close agreement with experimental data, and compare with literature data on gas hold‐ups at the centre of the column. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

Local hydrodynamic parameters of bubble column reactors operating with non‐Newtonian liquids: Experiments and models development

The effects of liquid phase rheology on the local hydrodynamics of bubble column reactors operating with non‐Newtonian liquids are investigated. Local bubble properties, including bubble frequency, bubble chord length, and bubble rise velocity, are measured by placing two in‐house made optical fiber probes at various locations within a bubble column reactor operating with different non‐Newtonian liquids. It was found that the presence of elasticity can noticeably increase the bubble frequency but decreases the bubble chord length and its rise velocity. The radial profiles of bubble frequency, bubble chord length, and bubble rise velocity are shown to be relatively flat at low superficial gas velocity while they become parabolic at high superficial gas velocity. Moreover, the bubble size and gas holdup are correlated with respect to dimensionless groups by considering the ratio between dynamic moduli of viscoelastic liquids. The novel proposed correlations are capable of predicting the experimental data of bubble size and gas holdup within a mean absolute percentage error of 9.3% and 10%, respectively. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 1382–1396, 2016     

Pressure drop and bubble-liquid interfacial shear stress in a modified gas non-Newtonian liquid downflow bubble column

A functional form of equation for predicting pressure drop in a modified non-Newtonian downflow bubble column has been formulated. The equation has been developed based on the bubble formation, drag at interface and the wettability effect of the liquid. Also the bubble-liquid interfacial shear stress in two-phase flow is analyzed and correlated with the dynamic, geometric and physical variables. The functional form of equation appears to predict the pressure drop satisfactorily for two-phase dispersed flow in the co-current modified downflow bubble column with carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) solution in water with different concentrations.     

Semi‐theoretical prediction of volumetric mass transfer coefficients in bubble columns with organic liquids at ambient and elevated temperatures

A semi‐theoretical approach for predicting k_La values (referred to liquid volume) in 18 organic liquids [acetone, aniline, 1‐butanol, benzene, cyclohexane, decalin, 1,2‐dichloroethane, 1,4‐dioxane, ethanol (96%), ethylacetate, ethylbenzene, ligroin, methanol, nitrobenzene, 2‐propanol, tetralin, toluene, and xylene] at various operating conditions (including elevated temperatures and pressures) was developed. It was found that the approach is applicable regardless of the hydrodynamic regime (at u_G ≤ 0.1 m/s). Temperatures up to 353 K and pressures up to 0.5 MPa were tested. Two different distributors (multiple‐hole and single‐hole type) were employed. The liquid‐phase mass transfer coefficient k_L was calculated theoretically from the penetration theory on the basis of original definition of gas–liquid contact time. The interfacial area a was defined with respect to the liquid volume. It was found that their product k_La must be multiplied by some correction factor in order to take account of the non‐spherical (ellipsoidal) shape of the bubbles. When the correction term is correlated to both the Eötvös number (Eo) and the dimensionless temperature ratio, 198 experimental k_La values can be fitted reasonably well (average relative error 9.3%).     

Pressure drop in a split‐and‐recombine caterpillar micromixer in case of newtonian and non‐newtonian fluids

Microreactors are very promising tools for the design of future chemical processes. For example, emulsions of very narrow size distribution are obtained at much lower energy consumption than the one spent with usual processes. Micromixers play thereby an eminent role. The goal of this study is to better understand the hydrodynamic properties of a split‐and‐recombine Caterpillar micromixer (CPMM) specially with regard to handling viscoelastic fluids, a topic hardly addressed so far in the context of micromixers in general, although industrial fluids like detergent, cosmetic, or food emulsions are non‐Newtonian. Friction factor was measured in a CPMM for both Newtonian and non‐Newtonian fluids. For Newtonian fluids, the friction factor in the laminar regime is f/2 = 24/Re. The laminar regime exists up to Reynolds numbers of 15. For shear‐thinning fluids like Carbopol 940 or viscoelastic fluids like Poly Acryl Amide (PAAm) aqueous solutions, the friction factor scales identically within statistical errors up to a generalized Reynolds number of 10 and 0.01, respectively. Above that limit, there is an excess pressure drop for the viscoelastic PAAm solution. This excess pressure drop multiplies the friction factor by more than a decade over a decade of Reynolds numbers. The origin of this excess pressure drop is the high elongational flow present in the Caterpillar static mixer applied to a highly viscoelastic fluid. This result can be extended to almost all static mixers, because their flows are generally highly elongational. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 2679–2685, 2013     

Estimation of the ends pressure drop in an online capillary rheometer—using the neural network approach

Using an online or inline capillary rheometer as a tool of rheology measurement would come into the ends pressure drop problem. In order to derive the actual pressure drop of the capillary, another capillary with the same diameter and different length is needed (according to Bagley correction) but would result in a more complex mechanism. In this study, a neural network approach is proposed to estimate the ends pressure drops in an online capillary rheometer. The back propagation learning algorithm is used for network training. The shear rate, the die pressure, and the ratio of diameters of the reservoir to the capillary are taken as the neural network inputs, and the ends pressure drop is taken as the output. Two hundred of training sets that are made from a laboratory capillary rheometer are used for network training. The trained neural network can be consequently applied to real-time assessment of the ends pressure drops in the online capillary rheometer. It is concluded that using the proposed method for calculating the ends pressure drop is effective. Besides, the simplicity of the mechanism provides good portability for both online polymer characterization and quality control in processing. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 2183–2186, 1999     

Oxygen mass transfer coefficient in bubble column slurry reactor with ultrafine suspended particles and neural network prediction

The gas–liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient was determined by the dynamic oxygen absorption technique using a polarographic dissolved oxygen probe and the gas–liquid interfacial area was measured using dual‐tip conductivity probes in a bubble column slurry reactor at ambient temperature and normal pressure. The solid particles used were ultrafine hollow glass microspheres with a mean diameter of 8.624 µm. The effects of various axial locations (height–diameter ratio = 1–12), superficial gas velocity (u_G = 0.011–0.085 m/s) and solid concentration (ε_S = 0–30 wt.%) on the gas–liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient k_La_L and liquid‐side mass transfer coefficient k_L were discussed in detail in the range of operating variables investigated. Empirical correlations by dimensional analysis were obtained and feed‐forward back propagation neural network models were employed to predict the gas–liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient and liquid‐side mass transfer coefficient for an air–water–hollow glass microspheres system in a commercial‐scale bubble column slurry reactor. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Pressure drops in gas—liquid flow in a 15 cm reciprocating platecolumn

Time-averaged pressure drops have been measured in a 15 cm internal diameter reciprocating plate column, using the water/air system under conditions of cocurrent, countercurrent and single phase (water) flow. The reciprocation frequency was varied from 1 to 4 Hz, while the stroke (peak to trough amplitude) was set at 2.54 cm. Two types of perforated plate were used, having perforation diameters 14.3 and 6.35 mm. Under single phase flow conditions, the pressure drops were in agreement with an earlier model due to Noh and Baird (1984). Under cocurrent conditions the gas flow had the effect of increasing the pressure drop, particularly at low reciprocation rates; this was interpreted in terms of enhanced circulation velocities in the liquid phase. In countercurrent flow the pressure drop was also affected by bubbles clustering at the plates.     

Comparison of experimental results and numerical predictions of drop diameter from a single submerged nozzle in a liquid‐liquid system

This paper presents a comparison of experimental results and numerical predictions of drop formation from a single submerged nozzle for a liquid‐liquid system. The theoretical model is a modification of previous models used for a two‐stage drop formation mechanism. The model has been tested against experimental data for kerosene drop formation in distilled water using a range of different nozzle diameters. In addition, our liquid‐liquid model has been compared with both experimental and predicted results from published literature. These comparisons demonstrate that for liquid‐liquid systems, the present predictions of drop diameter versus dispersed phase nozzle velocity are in overall agreement with both the present and previous experimental results. In addition, the present model predictions are more accurate than those of previous models for liquid‐liquid systems.     

Prediction of two‐phase pressure drop and liquid holdup in co‐current gas–liquid downflow of air–Newtonian systems through packed beds

The dependency of pressure drop and liquid holdup on phase velocities, geometry of the column and packing materials as well as on the physical properties have been analyzed. Our experimental data (825 data points obtained using four liquid systems and three different particles) along with those of the available literature (776 data point from five different sources) were used for the analysis. The applicability and the limitations of the literature correlations were evaluated using the available data. Based on the analysis, new correlations for the estimation of pressure drop and liquid holdup, valid for low and high interaction regimes have been developed using the available data, with a wide range of variables. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Influence of elevated pressure and particle lyophobicity on hydrodynamics and gas–liquid mass transfer in slurry bubble columns

This article reports on the influence of elevated pressure and catalyst particle lyophobicity at particle concentrations up to 3 vol % on the hydrodynamics and the gas‐to‐liquid mass transfer in a slurry bubble column. The study was done with demineralized water (aqueous phase) and Isopar‐M oil (organic phase) slurries in a 0.15 m internal diameter bubble column operated at pressures ranging from 0.1 to 1.3 MPa. The overall gas hold‐up, the flow regime transition point, the average large bubble diameter, and the centerline liquid velocity were measured along with the gas–liquid mass transfer coefficient. The gas hold‐up and the flow regime transition point are not influenced by the presence of lyophilic particles. Lyophobic particles shift the regime transition to a higher gas velocity and cause foam formation. Increasing operating pressure significantly increases the gas hold‐up and the regime transition velocity, irrespective of the particle lyophobicity. The gas–liquid mass transfer coefficient is proportional to the gas hold‐up for all investigated slurries and is not affected by the particle lyophobicity, the particle concentration, and the operating pressure. A correlation is presented to estimate the gas–liquid mass transfer coefficient as a function of the measured gas hold‐up: $k_{\rm l}a_{\rm l}/\varepsilon_{\rm g} = 3.0 \sqrt{Du_{\rm b}/d_{\rm b}^3}\;{\rm s}^{-1}$ . © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

Hydrodynamics of gas–liquid flow in micropacked beds: Pressure drop,liquid holdup,and two‐phase model

Hydrodynamics of gas–liquid two‐phase flow in micropacked beds are studied with a new experimental setup. The pressure drop, residence time distribution, and liquid holdup are measured with gas and liquid flow rates varying from 4 to 14 sccm and 0.1 to 1 mL/min, respectively. Key parameters are identified to control the experimentally observed hydrodynamics, including transient start‐up procedure, gas and liquid superficial velocities, particle and packed bed diameters, and physical properties of the liquids. Contrary to conventional large packed beds, our results demonstrate that in these microsystems, capillary forces have a large effect on pressure drop and liquid holdup, while gravity can be neglected. A mathematical model describes the hydrodynamics in the micropacked beds by considering the contribution of capillary forces, and its predictions are in good agreement with experimental data. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 4694–4704, 2017     

Bubble size and radial gas hold‐up distributions in a slurry bubble column using ultrafast electron beam X‐ray tomography

Gas hold‐up and bubble size distribution in a slurry bubble column (SBC) were measured using the advanced noninvasive ultrafast electron beam X‐ray tomography technique. Experiments have been performed in a cylindrical column (D_T = 0.07 m) with air and water as the gas and liquid phase and spherical glass particles (d_P = 100 μm) as solids. The effects of solid concentration (0 ≤ C_s ≤ 0.36) and superficial gas velocity (0.02 ≤ U_G ≤ 0.05 m/s) on the flow structure, radial gas hold‐up profile and approximate bubble size distribution at different column heights in a SBC were studied. Bubble coalescence regime was observed with addition of solid particles; however, at higher solid concentrations, larger bubble slugs were found to break‐up. The approximate bubble size distribution and radial gas hold‐up was found to be dependent on U_G and C_s. The average bubble diameter calculated from the approximate bubble size distribution was increasing with increase of U_G. The average gas hold‐up was calculated as a function of U_G and agrees satisfactorily with previously published findings. The average gas hold‐up was also predicted as a function of C_s and agrees well for low C_s and disagrees for high C_s with findings of previous literature. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1709–1722, 2013