Effects of the Alcohol on the Hydrodynamic and Mass Transfer Performance in the Loop Reactor

Authors

  • Yao Geng, Zhe Lu, Chun-jiang Liu, Hui Liu

Abstract

The effects of the superficial gas velocity and the volume fraction of alcohols on the gas holdup and volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient in the internal airlift loop reactor(IALR) were investigated through experiments with the addition of n-propanol and n-butanol into the water to change the surface tension of the fluid. The results show that the gas holdup and mass transfer coefficient increase with the increase of superficial gas velocity and the addition of alcohols can greatly enhance the gas holdup and volumetric oxygen mass transfer performance. Specially, with the augment of alcohols, the increasing trend of gas holdup gradually slows down. However, a trend of first increasing and then decreasing of the volume oxygen mass transfer coefficient in terms of the effect of augment of alcohols shows there is a critical concentration of alcohols. What’s more, the ratio of mass transfer coefficient to overall gas holdup are found to be a fixed value, and the value is higher in the alcohol-water system. According to the ratio and the overall gas holdup, the prediction of the mass transfer coefficient in the reactor is also applicable to alcohol-water solitions with different volume fractions.

Published

2020-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles