Hydrodynamics of a self-agitated draft tube airlift reactor

The main hydrodynamic characteristics of a novel-constructed, self-agitated draft tube airlift reactor (DT-ALR) were investigated. Ten impellers, driven only by the means of gas throughput and induced liquid circulation, were inserted in the draft tube. The insertion of impellers caused bubble breakup and reduction of both mean bubble size and coalescence, even under the conditions of high gas throughputs. Although the impellers induced energy losses, the resistance to the flow was relatively lower due to their rotation, unlike the internals used in other research reported in the literature. In comparison to the conventional configuration of a DT-ALR, it was found that the presence of impellers led to significant changes in hydrodynamics: riser gas holdup and mixing time increased, while overall gas holdup and liquid velocity in the downcomer decreased. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172025

Simple correlations for bubble columns and draft tube airlift reactors with dilute alcohol solutions

Simple empirical correlations were developed to predict gas holdup, liquid circulation time, downcomer liquid velocity and volumetric mass transfer coefficient in dilute alcohol solutions in bubble columns and draft tube airlift reactors with single orifice sparger. Also, new experiments were conducted with diluted alcohol solutions to n-octanol, expanding the experimental data from C1 up to C8. The proposed empirical correlations include, beside the superficial gas velocity, the alcohol chain length as the only factor to characterize the liquid phase. The suggested correlations have shown good agreement between the calculated and the experimental data

Volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient in an external-loop airlift reactor with inserted membrane

The effects of the inserted membrane in the downcomer of an external-loop airlift reactor, the gas sparger type (single orifice and sinter plate) and added alcohol (ethanol, n-butanol, or n-hexanol) on the volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient (kLa) were studied. Due to the presence of the membrane in the downcomer, kLa did not change significantly; the differences were smaller than 10%. The highest values of the kLa were obtained using the sinter plate. It was found that the addition of small amounts of alcohol increased the mass transfer. Using our experimental results and the data of other authors, the feed-forward back propagation neural network for prediction of kLa in external-loop airlift reactors with alcohol solutions was proposed. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172025

Using the Ansys Fluent for simulation of two-sided lid-driven flow in a staggered cavity

This paper is concerned with numerical study of the two-sided lid-driven fluid flow in a staggered cavity. The ANSYS FLUENT commercial software was used for the simulation, In one of the simulated cases the lids are moving in opposite directions (antiparallel motion) and in the other they move in the same direction (parallel motion). Calculation results for various Re numbers are presented in the form of flow patterns and velocity profiles along the central lines of the cavity. The results are compared with the existing data from the literature. In general, a good agreement is found, especially in the antiparallel motion, while in the parallel motion the same flow pattern is found, but the velocity profiles are slightly different. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 46010