Numerical simulation of the interaction and coalescence of inline hydrogen bubbles in biohydrogen production by photofermentation with corncob

Abstract

The escape rate of hydrogen in photobiological hydrogen production plays an important role in the biochemical reaction process, and the interaction of hydrogen bubbles in bio-hydrogen production material liquid affects the escape rate of hydrogen. In this paper, the Eulerian-Eulerian-Multifluid VOF method is used to simulate the interactions of three types of hydrogen bubbles: coalescence of equal-sized inline hydrogen bubbles, a small leading hydrogen bubble is chased by a large trailing hydrogen bubble and a large leading hydrogen bubble is chased by a small trailing hydrogen bubble. The results show that the interaction strength between hydrogen bubbles is influenced by the initial interval and initial diameter of the hydrogen bubbles and the flow index of the hydrogen-producing material liquid. The hydrogen bubbles exhibit three types of aggregation. In the pre-merger period, the velocity of the trailing hydrogen bubble also shows four stage changes, which are acceleration to the maximum velocity - deceleration - small increase in velocity - deceleration to the merging velocity. There is also a brief acceleration of the leading hydrogen bubble. For the interaction between Type II and Type III hydrogen bubbles of the same size, there is no significant difference in the rise rate of large hydrogen bubbles after the coalescence.