Bubble column reactors engineering

Shah, Y.T., Kelkar, B.G., Godbole, S.P. and Deckwer, W.D., 1982. Design parameter estimations for bubble column reactors. American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, 28, 353. 

Zahradnik, J. and M. Fialova, The effect of bubbling regime on gas and liquid phase mixing in bubble column reactors. Chemical Engineering Science, 1996. 51(10) p. 2491-2500. 

FIG. 19-31 Some examples of bubble column reactor types, (a) Conventional bubble column with no internals. (6) Tray bubble column, (c) Packed bubble column with the packing being either an inert or a catalyst. [From Mills, Ramachandran, and Chaudhari, Multiphase Reaction Engineeringfor Fine Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Reviews in Chemical Engineering, 8(1-2), 1992, Figs. 2, 3, and 4.]... 

The symposium upon which this volume is based focused on three areas in reaction engineering fluidized bed reactors, bubble column reactors, and packed bed reactors. Each area comprises a section of this book. Professor J. R. Grace chaired and coordinated the fluidized bed sessions Professors Y. T. Shah and A. Bishop, the bubble column reactor session and Professor A. Varma, the packed bed reactor session. Each section in this book opens with a brief review chapter by the session chairman that includes an overview of the chapters in each session. 

Bubble column reactors (BCR) are widely used in chemical process industries to carry out gas-liquid and gas--liquid-solid reactions, the solid suspended in the liquid phase being most frequently a finely divided catalyst (slurry reactor). The main advantages of BCR are their simple construction, the absence of any moving parts, ease of maintenance, good mass transfer and excellent heat transfer properties. These favorable properties have lead to their application in various fields production of various chemical intermediates, petroleum engineering, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, fermentations and waste water treatment. 

Katinger HWD, Scheirer W Krdmer E (1979) Bubble column reactor for mass propagation of animal cells in suspension culture. German Chemical Engineering 2 31. 

FIGURE I 1.2 Reactor engineering of bubble column reactors relevant issues. 

The fluid dynamics of bubble column reactors is very complex and several different CFD models may have to be used to address critical reactor engineering issues. The application of various approaches to modeling dispersed multiphase flows, namely, Eulerian-Eulerian, Eulerian-Lagrangian and VOF approaches to simulate flow in a loop reactor, is discussed in Chapter 9 (Section 9.4). In this chapter, some examples of the application of these three approaches to simulating gas-liquid flow bubble columns are discussed. Before that, basic equations and boundary conditions used to simulate flow in bubble columns are briefly discussed. 

The list is merely suggestive. Complexity of reactive flows may greatly expand the list of issues on which further research is required. Another area which deserves mention here is modeling of inherently unsteady flows. Most flows in engineering equipment are unsteady (gas-liquid flow in a bubble column reactor, gas-solid flow in a riser reactor and so on). However, for most engineering purposes, all the details of these unsteady flows are not required to be known. Further work is necessary to evolve adequate representation of such flows within the CFD framework without resorting to full, unsteady simulations. This development is especially necessary to simulate inherently unsteady flows in large industrial reactors where full, unsteady simulations may require unaffordable resources (and therefore, may not be cost effective). Different reactor types and different classes of multiphase flows will have different research requirements based on current and future applications under consideration. 

Dhotre MT, Joshi JB (2004) Two-Dimensional CFD Model for the Prediction of Flow Pattern, Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer Coefficient in Bubble Column Reactors. Chemical Engineering Research and Design 82(A6) 689-707. 

Luo H (1993) Coalescence, break-up and hquid circulation in bubble column reactors. Dr. ing. thesis. Department of Chemical Engineering, the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway... 

Laari A, Turunen I (2003) Experimental Determination of Bubble Coalescence and Break-up Rates in a Bubble Column Reactor. The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering 81(3-4) 395-401... 

Behkish, A., Men, Z., Inga, J.R., and Morsi, B.I. (2002), Mass transfer characteristics in a large-scale slurry bubble column reactor with organic liquid mixtures, Chemical Engineering Science, 57(16) 3307-3324. 

Bouaifi, M., Hebrard, G., Bastoul, D., and Roustan, M. (2001), A comparative study of gas hold-up, bubble size, interfacial area, and mass transfer coefficients in stirred gas-liquid reactors and bubble columns, Chemical Engineering and Processing, 40(2) 97-111. 

Dhaouadi, H., Poncin, S., Homut, J.M., andMidoux, N. (2008), Gas-liquid mass transfer in bubble column reactor - Analytical solution and experimental confirmation, Chemical Engineering and Processing Process Intensification, 47(4) 548-556. 

Ellenberger, J., and Krishna, R. (1994), A unified approach to the scale-up of gas-solid fluidized bed and gas-liquid bubble column reactors, Chemical Engineering Science, 49(24B) 5391-5411. 

Han, L., and Al-Dahhan, M.H. (2007), Gas-liquid mass transfer in a high pressure bubble column reactor with different sparger designs, Chemical Engineering Science, 62(1 -2) 131-139. 

Jakobsen, H.A., Lindborg, H., and Dorao, C.A. (2005b), Modeling of bubble column reactors Progress and limitations, Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 44(14) 5107-5151. 

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