(442f) CFD Simulation for Bubble Column with and without Internals of Fischer Tropsch (FT) Synthesis

Very limited studies either experimentally or numerically have investigated the influence of vertical internals on the hydrodynamics properties and flow pattern in bubble column equipped with the internals. Therefore, in this study, the impact of vertical internal on time -averaged cross-sectional gas hold distribution and their radial profiles have experimentally and numerically addressed in 6-inch bubble column without and with internals of the air-water system at churn turbulent flow regime (15 and 20 cm/s). In this work, thirty dense Plexiglas internals have arranged uniformly with the hexagonal configuration that covers 25% of the total cross-sectional area of the column, which similar to those employed in Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. The time-averaged gas holdup distribution and their radial profile at different superficial gas velocities have simulated in a full 3D, transient, Euler/Euler framework by utilizing the computational fluid dynamic CFD. The 3D simulation results of the time-averaged cross-sectional gas holdup distributions and their radial profiles have been validated with benchmarking data measured by using gamma-ray computed tomography (CT) technique for the same system. The result and the findings will be presented in the presentation.