Effect of Scale on Hydrodynamics of Internal Gas-Lift Loop Reactor-Type Anaerobic Digester Using CFD
-
Mehul S. Vesvikar
and
Muthanna Al-Dahhan
Abstract
This work evaluates the ability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the flow and predict the hydrodynamics of internal gas-lift loop reactor (IGLR)-type anaerobic digester. In addition, it also analyzes if CFD can account for the effects of operating conditions, geometry as well as scale of the reactor. For this purpose, three-dimensional two-phase CFD simulations were performed using CFX for laboratory-scale and pilot-scale IGLR. The CFD predictions were evaluated against experimental data obtained from computer automated radioactive particle tracking (CARPT). The CFD predictions provided good qualitative but only reasonable quantitative comparison. After validation of CFD model, effect of gas flow rate, draft tube diameter, sparger geometry and reactor scale on flow pattern, liquid velocity and dead volume was investigated. Higher gas flow rates did not offer any significant advantage in increasing liquid circulation in the downcomer or decreasing the dead volume. Configuration with draft tube diameter half of tank diameter, equipped with cross sparger showed comparatively better liquid circulation than other configurations. For same superficial gas velocity, increasing the scale increases the magnitude of liquid velocity but fails to match the mixing intensity observed in laboratory scale. Different interphase forces, turbulence models and closures are also evaluated to improve the predictability of CFD models.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the United States Department of Energy for sponsoring the research project (Identification Number: DE-FC36-01GO11054), ANSYS for providing the CFX software and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory group for their support.
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©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Modeling the Fischer–Tropsch Product Distribution and Model Implementation
- Ethylsulphate-Based Ionic Liquids in the Liquid–Liquid Extraction of Pyrrole and Pyridine from Isododecane at 298.15 K
- Modeling and Optimisation of Xylose Production by Enzymatic Hydrolysis using Neural Network and Particle Swarm Optimization
- Effect of Scale on Hydrodynamics of Internal Gas-Lift Loop Reactor-Type Anaerobic Digester Using CFD
- Influence of Wall Structure on the Laminar Coupling Flow
- Pectin Extraction from Mango Peels in Batch Reactor: Dynamic One-Dimensional Modeling and Lattice Boltzmann Simulation
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Modeling the Fischer–Tropsch Product Distribution and Model Implementation
- Ethylsulphate-Based Ionic Liquids in the Liquid–Liquid Extraction of Pyrrole and Pyridine from Isododecane at 298.15 K
- Modeling and Optimisation of Xylose Production by Enzymatic Hydrolysis using Neural Network and Particle Swarm Optimization
- Effect of Scale on Hydrodynamics of Internal Gas-Lift Loop Reactor-Type Anaerobic Digester Using CFD
- Influence of Wall Structure on the Laminar Coupling Flow
- Pectin Extraction from Mango Peels in Batch Reactor: Dynamic One-Dimensional Modeling and Lattice Boltzmann Simulation
