CFD Analysis of Temperature Distributions in a Slurry Bubble Column with Direct Contact Heat Transfer

Abstract

-Slurry bubble column reactors have different applications in the industry due to their advantages. In spite of the simple construction of the slurry bubble column reactors, their scale up analyses are complex due to the effect of various parameters on the hydrodynamic and heat transfer rates in these reactors. Direct-contact heat transfer in slurry bubble columns involves a complex phenomenon of bubble formation and gas motion through the slurry. In this paper, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are used to investigate the temperature distributions for a direct contact heat transfer in a helium-water-alumina slurry bubble column, where helium gas is injected at 90 o C through a slurry of water at 22 o C and alumina solid particles. This paper studies the effects of superficial gas velocity, static liquid height, and solid particles concentration, on the average temperature of the slurry. In this study, it is assumed that the slurry inside the slurry bubble column is perfectly mixed, and the approaches used to model the slurry bubble column by CFD is 2D plane. From the CFD results, it is found that the average slurry temperature increases by increasing the superficial gas velocity and decreases by increasing the static liquid height and/or the solid concentration at any given superficial gas velocity, but the decrease with the solid concentration is negligible. The results of CFD simulations were compared with experimental data from the literature and show that the profiles of the slurry temperature calculated from CFD models, generally under-predicts the experimental data. The CFD model correctly predicts the experimental effects of static liquid height and solid concentration on average slurry temperature.

Effect of Solid Particles on Gas Holdup in a Slurry Bubble Column

“…Krishna et al have studied experimentally and numerically (CFD) the effect of the column diameter on gas holdup, and showed good agreement of both results [2]. Abdulrahman [36,37] has studied the heat transfer in a SBC by using 2-dimensional CFD analyses. He has investigated the effect of solid particles concentration on the volumetric heat transfer coefficient and the temperature distribution of the SBC.…”

Review of the Thermal Hydraulics of Multi-Phase Oxygen Production Reactor in the Cu-Cl Cycle of Hydrogen Production

“…In the studies of the direct contact heat transfer of the oxygen reactor, both of the experimental and CFD studies were performed [5,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. In the experimental works [5,[32][33][34][35], the actual materials of oxygen reactor such as oxygen gas, molten CuCl, and solid copper oxychloride, were simulated by alternative materials such as helium gas, water, and alumina solid particles.…”

“…In the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of direct contact heat transfer in the multiphase oxygen reactor, the effects of superficial gas velocity, static liquid height, and solid particles concentration, on the volumetric heat transfer coefficient, temperature distribution and overall gas holdup were investigated in details [5,[36][37][38][39][40]. The slurry within the slurry bubble column was assumed to be perfectly mixed, and the slurry bubble column was modelled using a 2D planar method.…”

Simulation of Materials Used in the Multiphase Oxygen Reactor of Hydrogen Production Cu-Cl Cycle

“…The advantages of these materials are the availability and the safe usage in the lab. The experimental and CFD analyses of the thermal hydraulics of liquid water at 22 o C and helium gas at 90 o C have been investigated in details by Abdulrahman [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Table 1 indicates the physical properties of both the actual and experimental fluids.…”