Stirred reactors, simulation multiphase flows

This review paper is restricted to stirred vessels operated in the turbulent-flow regime and exploited for various physical operations and chemical processes. The developments in the field of computational simulations of stirred vessels, however, are not separated from similar developments in the fields of, e.g., turbulent combustion, flames, jets and sprays, tubular reactors, and multiphase reactors and separators. Fortunately, there is a strong degree of synergy and mutual cross-fertilization between these various fields. This review paper focuses on aspects specific to stirred vessels (such as the revolving impeller, the resulting strong spatial variations in turbulence properties, and the macroinstabilities) and on the processes carried out in them. 

Knowledge of these types of reactors is important because some industrial reactors approach the idealized types or may be simulated by a number of ideal reactors. In this chapter, we will review the above reactors and their applications in the chemical process industries. Additionally, multiphase reactors such as the fixed and fluidized beds are reviewed. In Chapter 5, the numerical method of analysis will be used to model the concentration-time profiles of various reactions in a batch reactor, and provide sizing of the batch, semi-batch, continuous flow stirred tank, and plug flow reactors for both isothermal and adiabatic conditions. 

The recent progress in experimental techniques and applications of DNS and LES for turbulent multiphase flows may lead to new insights necessary to develop better computational models to simulate dispersed multiphase flows with wide particle size distribution in turbulent regimes. Until then, the simulations of such complex turbulent multiphase flow processes have to be accompanied by careful validation (to assess errors due to modeling) and error estimation (due to numerical issues) exercise. Applications of these models to simulate multiphase stirred reactors, bubble column reactors and fluidized bed reactors, are discussed in Part IV of this book. 

Flow in baffled stirred reactors has been modeled by employing several different approaches which can be classified into four types, and are shown schematically in Fig. 10.3. Most flow simulations of stirred vessels published before 1995 were based on steady-state analyses (reviewed by Ranade, 1995) using the black box approach. This approach requires boundary conditions (mean velocity and turbulence characteristics) on the impeller swept surface, which need to be determined experimentally. Although this approach is reasonably successful in predicting the flow characteristics in the bulk of the vessel, its usefulness is inherently limited by the availability of data. Extension of such an approach to multiphase flows and to industrial-scale reactors is not feasible because it is virtually impossible to obtain (from experiments) accurate... 

Many of the situations encountered by reactor engineers involve (refer to Table 10.1) contact with more than one phase in a stirred tank. It is, therefore, essential to examine whether CFD models can simulate complex multiphase flows in stirred tanks. Here the case of gas-liquid flows in a stirred tank is considered. Similar methodology can be applied to simulate other two-phase or multiphase flows in stirred vessels. The computational snapshot approach discussed previously has been extended to simulate gas-liquid flows (see Ranade et al., 2001c for more details). A two-fluid model was used to simulate gas-liquid flow in a stirred vessel the model equations and boundary conditions are listed below. 

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is rapidly becoming a standard tool for the analysis of chemically reacting flows. For single-phase reactors, such as stirred tanks and empty tubes, it is already well-established. For multiphase reactors such as fixed beds, bubble columns, trickle beds and fluidized beds, its use is relatively new, and methods are still under development. The aim of this chapter is to present the application of CFD to the simulation of three-dimensional interstitial flow in packed tubes, with and without catalytic reaction. Although the use of... 

By using CFD, the fluid flows can be taken into closer examination. Rigorous submodels can be implemented into commercial CFD codes to calculate local two-phase properties. These models are Population balance equations for bubble/droplet size distribution, mass transfer calculation, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics. Simulation of a two-phase stirred tank reactor proved to be a reasonable task. The results revealed details of the reactor operation that cannot be observed directly. It is clear that this methodology is applicable also for other multiphase process equipment than reactors. 

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