Fluid flow in pachuca (air-agitated) tanks: Part I. Laboratory-scale experimental measurements

Abstract

Gas-agitated reactors are used in a number of process industries, including the metallurgical industry, where they are known as “Pachuca” tanks. In spite of the fact that it is the circulation (i.e., velocity and turbulent kinetic energy distribution) within these tanks that governs the main process requirements,i.e., mass transfer and particle suspension, very little attention has been paid to the question of fluid flow. In the present study, velicity measurements made in a laboratory-scale Pachuca tank have suggested the importance of the fluid flow pattern in governing the performance of air-agitated tanks and have shed some light on the efficient operation of these tanks. Full-center-column tanks with large tank height-to-diameter ratios have a “near-stagnant zone” in the lower section of the annulus. The stagnant zone is a region of low turbulent kinetic energy and is undesirable, since it costs energy and is likely to provide very little in return in terms of mass transfer. An increase in the draft tube diameter, for a given tank diameter, leads to higher velocity and turbulence levels in the annulus, which, in turn, should promote mass transfer. Free-airlift tanks seem to be more vigorously agitated than full-center-column tanks. The present study shows that operating a full-center-column Pachuca tank with the liquid surface at or below the same level as the draft tube top would be disadvantageous in terms of particle suspension and mass transfer and also illustrates that it is erroneous to correlate the turbulence on the liquid surface with the turbulence level within the tank.