Expansion characteristics of an anaerobic fluidized bed reactor with internal biogas production

More realistic dynamic bed‐expansion experiments using a three‐phase anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (AFBR) with and without internal biogas production were conducted for the establishment of correlation equations for the mean volume ratio of wakes to bubbles (k). A predictive model was also developed for the expansion characteristics of the three‐phase AFBR with internal biogas production. The predicted bed‐expansion heights (H_GLS) deviated by only ±10% from the experimental measurements for the three‐phase AFBR. According to the modeling results, if a three‐phase AFBR is loaded into a carrier with low specific gravity (dry density of carrier, ρ_md = 1.37 g cm^?3; wet density of carrier, ρ_mw = 1.57 g cm^?3) and operated at a high superficial liquid velocity (u_l = 4.0 cm s^?1), the ratio of H_GLS to H_LS at a high superficial gas velocity (u_g = 1.5 cm s^?1) can reach as high as 271%. A higher fluidized‐bed height has a greater effect on the bed‐expansion behavior because of the decrease in liquid pressure (surrounding gas bubbles) along the fluidized‐bed height. From parametric sensitivity analyses, H_GLS is most sensitive to the parameter reactor width (X), especially within a small ΔX/X₀ range of ±10%; sensitive to ρ_mw, diameter of the carrier, ρ_md and total mass of carrier and least sensitive to u_l, biofilm thickness and u_g. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry