Bubble column flow regimes

Hur YG, Yang JH, Jung H, Park SB. (2013) Origin of regime transition to turbulent flow in bubble column orifice and column-induced transitions. Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 50 89-97. 

An extensive treaunent of gas-liquid flows encountered in industry applications, along with numerous design correlations can be found in Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Fluid Mechanics - Gas-Liquid Flows (N. P. Cheremisinoff, editor. Gulf Publishing Co, Houston, TX, 1986). Further discussions in this volume can be found in Chapter 4 with regard to flow regimes typically encountered in bubble columns and similar devices. 

GL 27] [R 3] [P 29] By means of sulfite oxidation, the specific interfacial areas of the fluid system nitrogen/2-propanol were determined for different flow regimes [5]. For two types of micro bubble columns differing in micro-channel diameter, interfaces of 9800 and 14 800 m m , respectively, were determined (gas and liquid flow rates 270 and 22 ml h in both cases). Here, the smaller channels yield the multi-phase system with the largest interface. 

In a properly operated bubble-column reactor, the liquid phase can be considered to be perfectly mixed, i.e. concentrations in the liquid are the same everywhere and correspond to those in the effluent. The gas is supposed to flow like a piston, i.e. the reactor is a plug-flow reactor with respect to the gas. These two assumptions are not entirely true, but within a certain flow regime they are not far from the reality. 

Figure 11.39 Photographs of cold-flow experiments studying the flow regimes and catalyst suspension in laboratory bubble columns. Left low gas flow middle high gas flow right high gas flow with catalyst suspension.

Additionally, macroscopic flow structure of 3-D bubble columns were studied [10]. The results reported can be resumed as follows (a) In disperse regime, the bubbles rise linearly and the liquid flow falls downward between the bubble stream, (b) If gas velocity increases, the gas-liquid flow presents a vortical-spiral flow regime. Then, cluster of bubbles (coalesced bubbles) forms the central bubble stream moving in a spiral manner and 4-flow region can be identified (descending, vortical-spiral, fast bubble and central flow region). Figure 10 shows an illustrative schemes of the results found in [10]. 

Flow regimes in slurry bubble column reactors... 

The hydrodynamics of bubble columns and slurry bubble column reactors depend strongly on the flow regime (Figure 3.27). There are three flow patterns that prevail in these reactors (Wallis, 1969 Shall et al., 1982) ... 

For the heterogeneous flow regime, the Akita-Yoshida correlation derived for bubble column reactors is proposed (Akita and Yoshida, 1973 Ramachandran and Chaudhari, 1984 Behkish, 2004 Koide, 1996) ... 

Suppose that the reaction takes place in a slurry bubble column and that it is desirable to work in the heterogeneous flow regime. Moreover, assume that the liquid is batch and well mixed and the flow of the gas approximates the ideal plug flow. 

Figure 5.3-7. Scheme of the flow regimes in bubble slurry column [6]. 

Figure 5.3-8. Details of the chum-turbulent flow regime of BSCR according to Inga [1], (db)0-gas bubble size at atmospheric conditions in the absence of solid particles, (d, )ps- bubble size at the operating pressure and catalyst concentration. Column height = 2.8 m, internal diameter = 0.316 m. P < 8 bars. Organic media, catalyst diameter < 100 pm.

As is the case for reactors with two or more mobile phases, a variety of flow regimes exist depending primarily on the gas superficial velocity (the driver for bubble column hydrodynamics) and column diameter. A qualitative flow regime map is shown in Fig. 19-38. 

A number of flow regime maps are available for packed bubble columns [see, e.g., Fukushima and Lusaka, J. Chem. Eng. Japan, 12 296 (1979)]. Correlations for the various hydrodynamic parameters can be found in Shah (Gas-Liquid-Solid Reactor Design, McGraw-Hill, 1979), Ramachandran and Chaudhari (Three-Phase Catalytic Reactors, Gordon and Breach, 1983), and Shah and Sharma [Gas-Liquid-Solid Reactors in Carberry and Varma (eds.), Chemical Reaction and Reactor Engineering, Marcel Dekker, 1987]. 

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