Abstract—Hydrodynamic and mass transfer characteristics of an annulus-rising airlift reactor (AR_ALR) were investigated with experimental and CFD simulation methods. An Eulerian model with two bubble phases was developed to simulate the AR_ALR in three circulation flow regimes. 3D steady state CFD simulations were performed under different gas superficial velocities (Ug). Good agreements on gas holdup and volumetric mass transfer coefficient were obtained over the range of the studied Ug. The simulated averaged liquid velocities in AR_ALR with different scales were compared and accounted for the influence of reactor scale on gas holdup. The three flow regimes in AR_ALR were captured well and are similar to those observed in experiments. The developed CFD model can be used to predict the hydrodynamics and mass transfer in AR_ALRs with different scales.
Index Terms—Annulus-rising airlift reactor, CFD, mass transfer, scale-up effect.
The authors are with Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Finland (e-mail: mei.han@lut.fi, arto.laari@lut.fi, tuomas.koiranen@lut.fi).
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Cite: Mei Han, Arto Laari, and Tuomas Koiranen, "Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer Performance of Annulus-Rising Airlift Reactor — The Effect of Reactor Scale," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 47-52, 2017.
