Design and Analysis of a Submerged Membrane Reactor by CFD Simulation

CFD was applied to demonstrate the effect of reactor configurations on the fluid flow pattern in submerged membrane reactors. A mixture model, a realizable k‐ϵ model, and the multiple reference frame (MRF) technique were employed to simulate the solid‐liquid turbulent flow. Influences of the introdu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical engineering & technology 2013-11, Vol.36 (11), p.1874-1882
Main Authors: Meng, L., Cheng, J.-C., Jiang, H., Yang, C., Xing, W.-H., Jin, W.-Q.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational fluid dynamics
Phenol hydroxylation
Porous ceramic membrane
Submerged membrane reactor
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Summary:CFD was applied to demonstrate the effect of reactor configurations on the fluid flow pattern in submerged membrane reactors. A mixture model, a realizable k‐ϵ model, and the multiple reference frame (MRF) technique were employed to simulate the solid‐liquid turbulent flow. Influences of the introduction of a ceramic membrane, the relative position between ceramic membrane and impeller, and the types of impeller on velocity profiles and concentration distributions were systematically discussed. These simulation results were validated qualitatively with experimental data for various reactor configurations. The submerged membrane reactor can effectively solve the problem concerning ultrafine catalyst recovery. Based on computational fluid dynamics, the fluid flow pattern in a submerged membrane reactor is studied and validated qualitatively with the experimental data from phenol hydroxylation which took place inside the reactor. The effect of different reactor configurations on velocity profiles and concentration distribution is systematically discussed.
ISSN:0930-7516
1521-4125
DOI:10.1002/ceat.201300206