(346g) Two Fluid Models for Simulating Multiphase Reactions in Bubble Columns

Bubble columns are
widely used in the process industries for various reactions such as
oxidation, halogenation, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, column floatation
etc. In many of these reactions mass transfer from the gas phase to
the liquid phase is accompanied by a homogeneous reaction in the
liquid phase. The overall conversion and the selectivity is
determined to a large extent by the flow dynamics. The strong
coupling that exists between the fluid mechanics, mass transfer, and
reactions has made it very difficult for designing these reactors
from a fundamental framework. Another very important problem in the
design of these reactors is the issue of scale-up.

Advances
in the physical modeling of bubble columns, availability of
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software coupled with high speed
computers enables one to take a look at these issues now from a more
fundamental light. In this work we highlight how the Eulerian
multiphase models can be used to model inter-phase mass transfer
followed by a liquid phase reaction. Such a reaction scheme is very
typical of many of reactions in bubble column reactors. Our work will
highlight information that can be obtained from these simulations,
and how CFD can be used effectively to enhance the performance of
these reactors.