Multiphase reacting flow studies of bubble column ozonation reactor for water remediation

A multiphase Volume‐of‐fluid (VOF) model was developed to gain further insights into the reactive flow parameters and electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) measurements on the remediation of hazardous organic pollutants. Low ozone bubble frequencies were obtained for high surface tension fluids, and the liquid viscosity affected the ozone bubbling frequency. The VOF model indicated that the increase of inlet gas velocity enriched the ozone bubble detachment and concomitantly generated larger ozone bubbles, decreasing the detoxification rates. VOF mappings and ECT visualizations of gas‐liquid unveiled preferential routes and highlighted the attenuation of the axisymmetric behavior of the ozonation bubble column under high‐interaction regimes.     

Radial Profiles of Gas Bubble Behavior in a Gas‐Liquid Bubble Column Reactor under Elevated Pressures

The effects of operating conditions on radial variation of gas holdups, bubble swarm rising velocity, and Sauter mean diameter were investigated in a bubble column reactor under elevated pressures using a conductivity probe method. Air served as gas phase and tap water as liquid phase with varying gas velocity and pressure. All three parameters increased constantly with higher superficial gas velocity. Maximum holdup, velocity, and Sauter mean diameter were found at the center of the cross section. Two different cases for Sauter mean diameter distribution were observed. The gas holdups increase continuously with higher system pressure, but decrease for bubble swarm rising velocity and Sauter mean diameter. According to experimental results, an empirical correlation of the gas holdup profiles is presented.     

Development of a CFD Model of Bubble Column Bioreactors: Part One – A Detailed Experimental Study

The holdup and bubble size distribution (BSD) in bubble columns using both air/water and an industrially relevant air/fermentation media system are investigated. It was found that the BSD in the air/fermentation media system was quite narrow and did not change with height. In contrast, the BSD in the air/water system varied considerably with height depending on the sparger design used. Holdup measurements were also performed for different superficial velocities. The holdup in the air/fermentation media system was greater than that for the air/water system, a result attributed to the presence of surface‐active compounds in the fermentation media.     

Simulation of polydisperse multiphase systems using population balances and example application to bubbly flows

In this work the relationship between multiphase computational fluid dynamics models and population balance models is illustrated by deriving the main governing equations from the generalized population balance equation. The resulting set of equations, consisting of the well known two-fluid model coupled with a bivariate population balance model, is then implemented in the CFD code OpenFOAM. The implementation is used to simulate a particular multiphase problem: bubbly flow in a rectangular column. Results show that, although the different mesoscale models for drag force, coalescence, breakup and mass transfer, can be improved, the agreement with experiments is nevertheless good. Moreover, although the problem investigated is quite complex, as the evolution of bubbles is solved in real-space, time and phase-space (i.e. bubble size and composition) the resulting computational costs are reasonable. This is due to the fact that the bivariate population balance model is solved here with the so-called conditional quadrature method of moments, that very efficiently deals with these problems. The overall approach is demonstrated to be efficient and robust and is therefore suitable for the simulation of many polydisperse multiphase flows.     

EXCESS GIBBS ENERGY FOR THE BINARY MIXTURES OF NITROBENZENE WITH SOME HYDROCARBONS AT 94.95 KPA

Bubble point temperatures at 94.95 kPa, over the entire composition range, are measured for the binary mixtures of nitrobenzene with: cyclohexane, n-hexane, n-heptane, n-decane, and o-, m-, and p-xylenes, using a Swietoslawski-type ebulliometer. Liquid phase composition versus bubble point temperature measurements are well represented by the Wilson model. Computed values of the excess Gibbs energy are presented and discussed.     

PHENOL BIODEGRADATION BY RALSTONIA PICKETTII EXTRACTED FROM PETROLEUM REFINERY OIL SLUDGE

Phenol-degrading bacterial strains have been extracted from oil-sludge samples collected from a local refinery. A selective medium was used to isolate the active strain capable of utilizing phenol as a sole carbon source, which was identified as Ralstonia pickettii. The growth kinetics of mixed and isolated R. pickettii suspensions were investigated using different initial concentrations of phenol in the range of 25 to 200 g m^?3 at 35°C and pH of 8.5. The results were compared to those of a commercially available mixed bacterial suspension, which was either acclimatized to 100 g m^?3 phenol concentration, extracted from PVA particles that were subjected to real petroleum refinery wastewater containing phenol, or an isolated active strain grown on a selective medium that was identified as Pseudomonas putida. The effect of substrate inhibition was observed using all bacterial suspensions, and the growth results were used to determine the parameters of a suitable kinetic model. It was found that the phenol biodegradation ability of the indigenous bacteria, R. pickettii, isolated from refinery sludge was comparable to that of the commercially available bacteria.     

THE KRAMERS CHAIN MODEL FOR POLYMERS

The freely jointed bead-rod chain (the “Kramers chain”) is a fairly realistic model for a macromolecule, and therefore it has been finding increased use in polymer science, particularly in connection with the calculation of rheological properties. The equilibrium configurational distribution function is derived (not a “random-walk” function). Then some of the recent uses of the Kramers chain for understanding the nonequilibrium properties of solutions and melts are summarized.     

The effect of sparger geometry on gas holdup and regime transition points in a bubble column equipped with perforated plate spargers

This paper investigates the effect of sparger geometry on flow regime of a bubble column. The experiments presented in this study were performed under atmospheric pressure with water/air in a cylindrical Plexiglas^® column of 33.0 cm i.d. and 3.0 m height. Three different perforated plate spargers were employed. Hole diameter was varied in the range of 1–3 mm, while the free area was 1.0%.The theory of linear stability is used for the prediction of regime transitions in the bubble column and a comparison has been presented between the predictions and the experimental observations. A good agreement between the predictions and the experimental values of transition gas holdup has been obtained.In addition, the data from the literature has been analyzed. Experimental values of transition gas holdups and predictions by the theory of linear stability have been compared with those of literature.A correlation based on dimensionless numbers (Archimedes, Froude, Eötvös and Weber) and the group (d_o/D_C) for the prediction of gas holdup in homogeneous regime is proposed. The average error between the correlation predictions and experimental values remains under ±10%.The proposed correlation is compared with the published data and found to be in fairly good agreement.     

Numerical simulation of two-phase flow with bubble break-up and coalescence coupled with population balance modeling

A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model was developed with an improved source term based on previous work by Hagesaether et al. [1] for bubble break up and bubble coalescence to carry out numerical prediction of number density of different bubble class in turbulent dispersed flow. The numerical prediction was based on two fluid models, using the Eulerian–Eulerian approach where the liquid phase was treated as a continuum and the gas phase (bubbles) was considered as a dispersed phase. Bubble–bubble interactions, such as breakage due to turbulence and coalescence due to the combined effect of turbulence and laminar shear were considered. The result shows that the radial distributions of number densities of lower bubble classes are more than its higher counterpart. The result also shows that the Sauter mean diameter increases with the increase of height up to 1 m and then become steady. Simulated results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Investigation of an Ozone Membrane Contactor System

Ozone mass transfer rates were determined for nine expanded porous Teflon membranes that had different pore size, thickness, and pore volume, a nonporous Teflon membrane, and a PVDF membrane. The mass transfer coefficient was 7.6 ± 0.5 × 10^?5 m/s at Re of 2000 for all membranes tested even though pore sizes ranged from 0.07 to 6 μm and thickness from 0.076 to 0.25 mm. Mass transfer increased with liquid side Reynolds number. Therefore, it is likely that ozone mass transfer is liquid phase controlling and not membrane limited. For a hypothetical case of 4000 m³/d and 2 mg/L ozone transferred, plate and frame membrane and hollow fiber contactors are approximately one and two orders of magnitude smaller, respectively, than fine-bubble diffusers.