Hydrodynamics of the reactor

Guichardon etal. (1994) studied the energy dissipation in liquid-solid suspensions and did not observe any effect of the particles on micromixing for solids concentrations up to 5 per cent. Precipitation experiments in research are often carried out at solids concentrations in the range from 0.1 to 5 per cent. Therefore, the stirred tank can then be modelled as a single-phase isothermal system, i.e. only the hydrodynamics of the reactor are simulated. At higher slurry densities, however, the interaction of the solids with the flow must be taken into account. 

Trickle-bed reactors are widely used in hydrotreating processes, i.e., hydrodesulfurization of gasoline and diesel fuel, in petroleum refining, chemical, petrochemical, and biochemical processes. The knowledge of hydrodynamic parameters is vital in the design of a TBR because the conversion of reactants, reaction yield, and selectivity depend not only on reaction kinetics, operating pressure, and temperature, but also on the hydrodynamics of the reactor. Special care is also required to prevent flow maldistribution, which can cause incomplete catalyst wetting in some parts... 

Computer simulation of the reactor kinetic hydrodynamic and transport characteristics reduces dependence on phenomenological representations and idealized models and provides visual representations of reactor performance. Modem quantitative representations of laminar and turbulent flows are combined with finite difference algorithms and other advanced mathematical methods to solve coupled nonlinear differential equations. The speed and reduced cost of computation, and the increased cost of laboratory experimentation, make the former increasingly usehil. 

The first commercial fluidized bed polyeth)4eue plant was constructed by Union Carbide in 1968. Modern units operate at 100°C and 32 MPa (300 psig). The bed is fluidized with ethylene at about 0.5 m/s and probably operates near the turbulent fluidization regime. The excellent mixing provided by the fluidized bed is necessary to prevent hot spots, since the unit is operated near the melting point of the product. A model of the reactor (Fig. 17-25) that coupes Iduetics to the hydrodynamics was given by Choi and Ray, Chem. Eng. ScL, 40, 2261, 1985. 

The dAc/dz term is usually zero since tubular reactors with constant diameter are by far the most important application of Equation (3.7). For the exceptional case, we suppose that Afz) is known, say from the design drawings of the reactor. It must be a smooth (meaning differentiable) and slowly varying function of z or else the assumption of piston flow will run into hydrodynamic as well as mathematical difficulties. Abrupt changes in A. will create secondary flows that invalidate the assumptions of piston flow. 

The results of research into the fluidised bed pyrolysis of plastic wastes are reported, with reference to determining the optimum process conditions for the process with respect to the reactor behaviour. The study investigates the effects of process variables such as bed temperature, polymer feed rate, bed hold-up, fluidising velocity, and size of inert material. Findings illustrate the importance of the knowledge of the hydrodynamics of the fluidised bed and of the interactions between bed and polymer particles in the design and operation of the reactor. 15 refs. 

The geometry of the reactor is of great importance owing to the fact that it is necessary to obtain good heat and mass transfer characteristics while working with laminar hydrodynamic conditions in order to assume a sufficient residence time compared to the reaction time. 

Eulerian two-fluid model coupled with dispersed itequations was applied to predict gas-liquid two-phase flow in cyclohexane oxidation airlift loop reactor. Simulation results have presented typical hydrodynamic characteristics, distribution of liquid velocity and gas hold-up in the riser and downcomer were presented. The draft-tube geometry not only affects the magnitude of liquid superficial velocity and gas hold-up, but also the detailed liquid velocity and gas hold-up distribution in the reactor, the final construction of the reactor lies on the industrial technical requirement. The investigation indicates that CFD of airlift reactors can be used to model, design and scale up airlift loop reactors efficiently. 

The hydrodynamic data will depend on the mixing characteristics of the reactor. In terms of the modeling of the reactor, the hydrodynamic data will depend on the mixing characteristics of each phase and the combinations of mixing characteristics for the phases. Table 7.3 gives typical data for various combinations of mixing characteristics for gas-liquid reactors16. 

Another approach to scale-up is the use of simplified models with key parameters or lumped coefficients found by experiments in large beds. For example, May (1959) used a large scale cold reactor model during the scale-up of the fluid hydroforming process. When using the large cold models, one must be sure that the cold model properly simulates the hydrodynamics of the real process which operates at elevated pressure and temperature. 

The available models mostly refer to ideal reactors, STR, CSTR, continuous PFR. The extension of these models to real reactors should take into account the hydrodynamics of the vessel, expressed in terms of residence time distribution and mixing state. The deviation of the real behavior from the ideal reactors may strongly affect the performance of the process. Liquid bypass - which is likely to occur in fluidized beds or unevenly packed beds - and reactor dead zones - due to local clogging or non-uniform liquid distribution - may be responsible for the drastic reduction of the expected conversion. The reader may refer to chemical reactor engineering textbooks [51, 57] for additional details. 

More recent tests have shown that much of the cracking takes place in the transfer line in which the regenerated catalyst is conveyed into the reactor in the stream of oil vapour. The chemical reaction involved is very fast, and the performance of the reactor is not sensitive to the hydrodynamic conditions. 

Recently, Mottola [98] reported a sensor based on the disk-ring principle previously developed by Kamin and Wilson [99], and Wang and Lin [100]. Unlike Mottola s design, its forerunners involved no stationary ring electrode or rotation of the reactor part in addition, their reactor/electrode was located at the cell bottom. In Mottola s assembly, a product of an enzyme-catalysed reaction at a bioreactor rotated at a constant speed was hydrodynamically transported to a stationary ring electrode, where it was electrochemically monitored. The sample was transported to the detection imit by an tm-... 

The design equations previously described are only valid when there are no factors which modify the kinetics of the immobilized biocatalyst (partition effects, heat and mass transfer effects and decay of biological activity) and the hydrodynamic characteristics of the reactor (back-mixing). Thus, the kinetic constants and used in those equations are intrinsic values obtained in the absence of those factors, being only dependent on the conformational and stereochemical effects inherent in the immobilization procedure used. 

After the investigation of hydrodynamics and mass transfer, the next step is the examination of the reactor model. For example, let us consider here the two-phase model with plug flow of gas in both bubble and emulsion phase and first-order reaction (see Section 3.8.3). The first step at this stage is to transform its equations to dimensionless forms. 

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