A New Approach for the Prediction of Gas Holdup in Bubble Columns Operated under Various Pressures in the Homogeneous Regime

Abstract

A new semi-theoretical approach for prediction of gas holdups in the homogeneous flow regime is suggested. The model is based on two different expressions for the gas-liquid interfacial area. It is argued that in the case of oblate ellipsoidal bubbles (formed in the homogeneous regime) some correction factor should be introduced in order to render both expressions equivalent. The correction term is correlated to Eötvös number and a dimensionless gas density ratio. The method was capable of predicting 386 experimental gas holdups measured in 21 organic liquids, 17 liquid mixtures and tap water with an average relative error of 9.6%.

Hydrodynamics of High‐Pressure Bubble Columns

“…A broad range of physical properties of both gas and liquid phase and operating conditions was examined by Nedeltchev und Schumpe [20]. Besides water as the liquid phase, they used multiple organic solvents which were sparged by different gases through various spargers at pressures up to 4 MPa.…”

“…To demonstrate the occurring difficulties when trying to predict gas holdups, the correlations of Wilkinson et al [16], Idogawa et al [12], and Nedeltchev und Schumpe [20] are compared for the H 2 O/N 2 system at a pressure of 2 MPa in [18]; column diameter 0.16 m, physical system: water/nitrogen. equation for superficial gas velocities up to 0.04 m s -1 .…”

“…3 that uncertainties of the gas holdup estimation lead to highly significant deviations when these gas holdups are used to calculate dispersion coefficients. [16], Idogawa et al [12], and Nedeltchev and Schumpe [20]. Physical system:…”

One‐Dimensional Modeling and Simulation of Bubble Column Reactors

“…In contrast to these purely empirical correlations, semi-theoretical models by Schumpe et al [17,18] can be used to calculate the gas content and the mass transfer coefficient. Then, the gas content is obtained from the following equation: …”

JCEJ Outstanding Paper Award of 2008

“…Holdup in Bubble Columns Operated under Various Pressures in the Homogeneous Regime" by Stoyan Nedeltchev and Adrian Schumpe, TU Braunschweig (Nedeltchev and Schumpe, 2008) Citation: This paper deals with the prediction method of gas holdup in bubble columns under various conditions in the homogeneous flow regime. The authors used a new semi-theoretical approach for its prediction based on two different expressions for the gas-liquid interfacial area.…”