Mixing time studies in bubble column reactor with and without internals

Abstract

Sectionalized bubble columns are finding a wide use in the case of FT synthesis, petroleum refining, wastewater treatments, extraction, absorption, leaching, ion exchange etc., due to their superiority in terms of reduced liquid phase back-mixing. The present work covers a mixing aspect in a 0.41 m id. sectionalized bubble column over a wide range of superficial gas velocity, liquid height to column diameter ratio, percent free area of the sectionalizing plates and electrolyte concentration for Air-water system. The acquired conductivity data was optimized using a compartmental and axial dispersion models and the model parameters have been estimated. For a given Hc/D ratio; mixing time was found to decrease with an increase in gas superficial velocity and free area of the sectionalizing plate. The compartmental model successfully predicts the tracer concentration profile and the longitudinal dispersion coefficient. The mixing time in a sectionalized bubble column was also compared with a non-sectionalized bubble column and was found to be order of magnitude higher.