Contact

Dr. Markus Schubert

m.schubertAthzdr.de
Phone: +49 351 260 2627

HydroSBC - Hydrodynamics studies in slurry bubble columns

Slurry bubble columns (SBCs) find a wide range of application in the chemical process industries. Most important applications of slurry bubble column are catalytic hydrogenation of oil, methanol synthesis, Fischer-Tropsch process etc. Since the nature of the system becomes more complex due to the presence of solid, there are various aspects like bubble formation, bubble rise, gas hold-up and regime transition which contributes to the complex fluid dynamic inside the slurry bubble column.

The main focus of this project is to provide reliable guidelines to optimize the catalyst particle size and solid concentration in order to provide proper hydrodynamic conditions like gas hold-up, bubble size distribution and flow regimes for processes in a SBC reactor.

The methodology of the project is to apply ultrafast electron beam X-ray tomography to visualize the insight into a highly opaque slurry bubble column at various operating conditions. Corresponding large scale CFD analysis of the three phase gas-liquid-solid system using commercial flow solver (ANSYS) is the second focus in this project.

Fig. 1: 3D-Visualization of the gas phase from the tomographic images at different solid concentration. Fig. 2: CFD predictions of gas hold-up at the central plane at different solid concentration in a slurry bubble column.

References


Funding

Funding organization:Budget funds
Period:since 09/11


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