Gas–liquid mixing in dual agitated vessels in the heterogeneous regime

Abstract

Gas–liquid multi-phase processes are widely used for reactions such as oxidation and hydrogenation. There is a trend for such processes to increase the productivity of the reactions, one method of which is to increase the gas flow rate into the vessel. This means that it is important to understand how these reactors perform as high gas flow rates occurs well into the heterogeneous regime. This paper investigates the mixing performance for the dual axial radial agitated vessel of 0.61m in diameter. 6 blade disk turbine (Rushton turbine) below a 6 Mixed flow Up-pumping and down-pumping have been studied at very high superficial gas velocities to understand the flow regimes operating at industrial conditions. Electrical resistance tomography have been used to produce the 3D images using Matlab, along with analysing the mixing parameters such as Power characteristics, gas hold-up and dynamic gas disengagement. Minimal difference between the two configurations have been reported in terms of gas hold-up, however with the choice of upward and downward pumping impeller power characteristics show significant difference at very high gas flow rates. Also at these high superficial gas velocities, this report introduces a 3rd bubble class, as seen in dynamic gas disengagement experiments, which corresponds to very large slugs of gas.