CFD simulation of Hydrodynamics and mass transfer of oil–water micro-emulsion in a three phase external airlift reactor

In this paper is described the effect of presence of solid on hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics for two & three phase flow in an external split cylindrical airlift reactor such as gas hold up and mass transfer coefficient usage Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Mentioned parameters are investigated at two Solid concentrations (0.25,0.5 wt%) in oil mirco-emulsion in water (5 vol%) at several of superficial gas velocity (0.2–1 cm/s) in an external split-cylinder airlift bioreactor. Simulation is based on two dimension (2D), k_ε model for turbulency model and Eulerian model for phase behavior model. As are observed the gas hold-up and mass transfer coefficient for all the fluids increased with increasing the gas velocity and decreased with increasing the solid concentration. Results are compared with the experimental result data

Keywords:

external airlift bioreactors , gas holdup , volumetric mass transfer coefficient , three phase , computational fluid dynamics (CFD)