CFD Simulation of Scale Influence on the Hydrodynamics of an Internal Loop Airlift Reactor

Reza Davarnejad, Ehsan Bagheripoor, Abolfazl Sahraei

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, Arak, Iran.

DOI: 10.4236/eng.2012.410085                

Abstract

In this work, the overall gas hold-up in the riser and down-comer of three internal airlift reactors with a working volume of 10.5, 32 and 200 l at the range of temperatures 18℃ - 21℃, under atmospheric pressure was simulated using Com-putational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The range of superficial gas velocity was 0.5 - 3 cm/s. The three reactors geometrically were similar to each other. CFD simulation and experimental data showed that the gas hold-up in the riser and down-comer increased by increasing the reactor scale. It was concluded that the simulated data were in good agreement with the experimental ones obtained from the literature.

Keywords

Internal Loop Airlift Reactor; Gas Hold-Up, CFD

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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