Void fraction, bubble size and interfacial area measurements in co-current downflow bubble column reactor with microbubble dispersion

Hernandez-Alvarado, Freddy; Kalaga, Dinesh V.; Turney, Damon; Banerjee, Sanjoy; Joshi, Jyeshtharaj B.; Kawaji, Masahiro

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2017.05.006

Void fraction, bubble size and interfacial area measurements in co-current downflow bubble column reactor with microbubble dispersion

Journal Article · Sat May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Chemical Engineering Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2017.05.006· OSTI ID:1368176

Hernandez-Alvarado, Freddy ^[1]; Kalaga, Dinesh V. ^[2]; Turney, Damon ^[2]; Banerjee, Sanjoy ^[2]; Joshi, Jyeshtharaj B. ^[3]; Kawaji, Masahiro ^[2]

City College of New York, NY (United States); City College of New York
City College of New York, NY (United States)
Homi Bhabha National Inst., Mumbai (India)

Micro-bubbles dispersed in bubble column reactors have received great interest in recent years, due to their small size, stability, high gas-liquid interfacial area concentrations and longer residence times. The high gas-liquid interfacial area concentrations lead to high mass transfer rates compared to conventional bubble column reactors. In the present work, experiments have been performed in a down-flow bubble column reactor with micro-bubbles generated and dispersed by a novel mechanism to determine the gas-liquid interfacial area concentrations by measuring the void fraction and bubble size distributions. Gamma-ray densitometry has been employed to determine the axial and radial distributions of void fraction and a high speed camera equipped with a borescope is used to measure the axial and radial variations of bubble sizes. Also, the effects of superficial gas and liquid velocities on the two-phase flow characteristics have been investigated. Further, reconstruction techniques of the radial void fraction profiles from the gamma densitometry's chordal measurements are discussed and compared for a bubble column reactor with dispersed micro-bubbles. The results demonstrate that the new bubble generation technique offers high interfacial area concentrations (1,000 to 4,500 m²/m³) with sub-millimeter bubbles (500 to 900 µm) and high overall void fractions (10% – 60%) in comparison with previous bubble column reactor designs. The void fraction data was analyzed using slip velocity model and empirical correlation has been proposed to predict the Sauter mean bubble diameter.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: City College of New York, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USNRC

Contributing Organization:: LanzaTech

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0000438

OSTI ID:: 1368176

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1398057

Journal Information:: Chemical Engineering Science, Journal Name: Chemical Engineering Science Journal Issue: C Vol. 168; ISSN 0009-2509

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Void fraction, bubble size and interfacial area measurements in co-current downflow bubble column reactor with microbubble dispersion

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