A study on hdyrodynamics and heat transfer in a bubble column reactor

Abstract

A bubble column reactor was designed and the accessory equipments were fixed in order to carry out hydrodynamics and heat transfer measurements. The experiments were initiated with two-phase air-water system and extended to three-phase systems by the addition of various solid phases. The solid packings utilized were: Glass beads of 10 per cent by volume concentration, yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bacteria cells (Escherichia coli) at concentrations 0.1 and 0.4 per cent by weight for both. The two important hydrodynamic parameters investigated were the gas holdup and bubble properties, namely the bubble population and their rise velocities. Heat transfer measurements were carried out at various axial and radial locations in the column, by the help of the fast response heat transfer probe designed in this study, so as to study the axial and radial average heat transfer coefficient profiles. An empirical equation was developed for predicting the heat transfer coefficient in bubble columns composed of air-water system, based on the experimental results. MATHEMATICA was used as the package program for estimation of the best fit parameters of the model. The model prediction of the experimental data was obtained to be within five per cent confidence interval.