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Effect of novel mixed impeller on local bubble size and flow regime transition in pilot scale gas-liquid stirred tank reactor

  • Roushni Kumari ORCID logo , Bhaskar Kasina , Raghvendra Gupta ORCID logo , Harish Jagat Pant and Rajesh Kumar Upadhyay ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: January 19, 2024
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Chemical Product and Process Modeling
From the journal Chemical Product and Process Modeling Volume 19 Issue 2

Abstract

The flow generated in a gas-liquid stirred tank reactor highly depends on the design of the impeller and sparger. To better understand the contact between the phases and the mass and heat transfer rates, especially when the mass transfer is the limiting step, it is crucial to investigate the hydrodynamics generated by the impellers and its impact on the bubble size and their distribution, and gas volume fraction. In this work, experimental and numerical studies are performed with a novel mixed impeller in a pilot scale (T = 0.486 m) gas-liquid stirred tank reactor. The Sauter mean diameter, mean bubble diameter and bubble size distribution is determined at the different radial and axial regions by using high-speed imaging technique. Further, Euler-Euler simulations are performed to find the detailed flow field of novel mixed impeller used in the current study. Finally, the gassed power to impeller swept volume ratio is determined from the CFD and correlated with the Sauter mean diameter measured in the experiment in the impeller discharge region. It is found that the novel mixed impeller used in current work shows the similar behavior as the Rushton impeller in the impeller discharge region and it also provide good axial mixing.

Keywords: Sauter mean diameter; bubble size distribution; high-speed imaging; Euler-Euler simulation; gas volume fraction; novel mixed impeller
Corresponding author: Rajesh Kumar Upadhyay, Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221005, India, E-mail:

Funding source: Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, India

Award Identifier / Grant number: 35/14/07/2018-BRNS

Acknowledgments

The funding received from the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), India under grant agreement number 35/14/07/2018-BRNS is gratefully acknowledged.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Author contribution: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission. R. Kumari: experimental and CFD investigation, writing – original draft, writing-review&editing, conceptualization; B. Kasina: CFD investigation and review; R. Gupta: supervision, resources, writing-review&editing, funding acquisition; H.J. Pant: review&editing; R.K. Upadhyay: supervision, data analysis, writing – original draft and review&editing, funding acquisition.

  3. Research funding: The reserch funding for the current work is provided by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), India under grant agreement number 35/14/07/2018-BRNS.

  4. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

  5. Data availability: Data will be made available on request.

Additional information

Nomenclature

C

impeller bottom clearance, m

C D

drag coefficient

C D,ellipse

drag coefficient of ellipse shaped bubble

C D,cap

drag coefficient of cap shaped bubble

C D,sphere

drag coefficient of sphere shaped bubble

D

impeller diameter, m

D ic

inner cylinder diameter, m

d 32

Sauter mean diameter, mm

d mean

mean bubble diameter, mm

d bi

equivalent bubble diameter, mm

Eo

Eotvos number

Eo′

modified Eotvos number

F

interphase momentum exchange term

Fl

flow number, Q g N D 3

Fr

Froude number, N 2 D g

g

gravitational acceleration, m/s2

h ic

inner cylinder height, m

H

tank liquid height, m

J

piecewise function

k

turbulent kinetic energy, m2/s2

Mo

Morton number

N

impeller speed, rps

P

pressure, kg/ms2

P g

gassed power, W

Q g

gas flow rate, m3/s

r

radial location, m

R

tank radius, m

Re

Reynolds number, ρ N D 2 μ

s

sparger bottom clearance, m

T

tank diameter, m

u

fluid velocity, m/s

u tip

impeller tip velocity, m/s

U t

terminal velocity of bubble, m/s

V sg

Superficial gas velocity, m/s

V swept

impeller swept volume, m3

W

impeller width, m

Z

axial location, m

Greek formula characters

α

phase volume fraction

σ

surface tension, N/m

ε

turbulent dissipation rate, m2/s3

µ

dynamic viscosity, kg m−1 s−1

ρ

density of the fluid, kg m−3

η

effectiveness factor

τ ═

stress tensor, kg/ms2

τ

torque, kgm2/s2

π

Pi

Abbreviations

SMD

Sauter mean diameter

BSD

Bubble size distribution

MRF

Multiple reference frame

MOC

Material of construction

PMDC

Permanent magnet direct current

CCD

charge-coupled device

COMS

complementary metal oxide semiconductor

fps

frame per second

STR

Stirred tank reactor

CFD

Computational fluid dynamic

E-E

Euler-Euler

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Received: 2023-05-30
Accepted: 2023-12-25
Published Online: 2024-01-19

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cppm-2023-0050
Keywords for this article
Sauter mean diameter; bubble size distribution; high-speed imaging; Euler-Euler simulation; gas volume fraction; novel mixed impeller

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. CPPM special issue in honor of Professor Faïçal Larachi
  4. Research Articles
  5. Predicting buoyant jet characteristics: a machine learning approach
  6. Insights into the bubble formation dynamics in converging shape microchannels using CLSVOF method
  7. Comparison of different CFD approaches for the simulation of developing free surface two-phase flow in straight and bent pipes
  8. A new approach to model the fluid dynamics in sandwich packings
  9. Effect of novel mixed impeller on local bubble size and flow regime transition in pilot scale gas-liquid stirred tank reactor
  10. Quantitative structure-electrochemistry relationship modeling of a series of anticancer agents using MLR and ANN approaches
  11. Extractive desulfurization of crude petroleum oil and liquid fuels using trihexyl tetradecyl phosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate ionic liquid
  12. CFD-aided contraction-expansion static mixer design for oil-in-water emulsification
  13. Liquid-liquid flow pattern and mass transfer in a rotating millimeter channel reactor
  14. By-product Eucalyptus leaves valorization in the basic dye adsorption: kinetic equilibrium and thermodynamic study
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