Solid-liquid mixing flotation

Gas-liquid bubble columns and gas-liquid-solid slurry bubble columns are widely used in the chemical and petrochemical industries for processes such as methanol synthesis, coal liquefaction, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and separation methods such as solvent extraction and particle/gas flotation. The hydrodynamic behavior of gas-liquid bubble columns and gas-liquid-solid slurry bubble columns are of great importance for the design and scale-up of reactors. Although the hydrodynamics of the bubble and slurry bubble columns has been a subject of intensive research through experiments and computations, the flow structure quantification of complex multi-phase flows are still not well understood, especially in the three-dimensional region. In bubble and slurry bubble columns, the presence of gas bubbles plays an important role to induce appreciable liquid/solids mixing as well as mass transfer. The flows within these systems are divided into two... 

In other cases, the method of removal depends upon the nature of the product, e.g. gases may be (1) vented from the reactor, possibly via a slight reduction In pressure (2) displaced from the electrolyte via inert gas sparging (3) segregated via a solid polymer electrolyte (section 5.2) or recirculated via a gas-liquid separator. Liquid products may be (1) separated by flotation or settlement if they are immiscible and have a markedly different density to the electrolyte or (2) emulsified by mixing, then swept out of the reactor. Solid products can be separated via (I) flotation or settlement (2) fluidization or tangential shear to remove them from the reactor (3) solvent extraction or incorporation into a mercury phase, e.g. amalgamation of metals. 

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