Quantification of Gas Distribution and Void Fraction in Packed Bubble Column Using Electrical Resistance Tomography

Random or structured packing is typically used in the chemical reactors to increase the contact area between the gas and liquid phases, and thus improve reaction efficiency. Knowledge of how packing types and sizes affect the gas distribution and the overall gas void fraction is critical for the opt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE sensors journal 2018-11, Vol.18 (21), p.8963-8970
Main Authors: Huarui Wang, Jiabin Jia, Yunjie Yang, Buschle, Bill, Lucquiaud, Mathieu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beads
Bubble columns
Bubbles
Chemical reactors
Conductivity
Electric contacts
Electrical resistance
Electrical resistance tomography (ERT)
Electrodes
gas distribution and void fraction
gas-liquid two-phase flow
Liquid phases
Liquids
Organic chemistry
packed bubble column
Sensors
Solid modeling
Solids
Tomography
Two phase flow
Void fraction
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Random or structured packing is typically used in the chemical reactors to increase the contact area between the gas and liquid phases, and thus improve reaction efficiency. Knowledge of how packing types and sizes affect the gas distribution and the overall gas void fraction is critical for the optimal design and operation of industrial processes. In this paper, a method of in situ quantifying the gas distribution and void fraction in a packed bubble column using electrical resistance tomography (ERT) is proposed. A 3-D simulation validation shows that the ERT is able to quantitatively determine the gas void fraction within 4% relative error against the theoretical value. The experiment was conducted in a bubble column, packed with 6-mm glass beads and 16-mm plastic pall rings. The results demonstrate that the gas distribution and the void fraction are considerably changed by different packing materials. All of these facts suggest that ERT is a reliable imaging tool for the real-time measurement of complex two-phase flows in the packed bubble column reactors.
ISSN:1530-437X
1558-1748
DOI:10.1109/JSEN.2018.2868463