Flow behaviors of multiscale bubbles with porous ceramic membrane distributors: Visualization and modeling

Abstract

The distribution of gas‐liquid two‐phase flow is one of the significant effects on heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Ceramic membrane gas distributors (CMGD) were applied in improving gas‐liquid distribution, and flow behavior of gas as dispersed phase in liquid phase was visualized via high‐speed photograph. The average diameters of multiscale bubbles were measured and modeled ranging from 10−5 to 10−2 m. The coalescence and trajectory of bubbles during rising process were observed, and two typical trajectories straight and spiral types were tracked. To inhibit coalescence of bubbles during rising process, internals manufactured by 3D printing were installed in the channel of ceramic membrane. The average bubble size of CMGD decreases 12% from 392 to 345 μm compared with that of the original CMGD. The CMGD with internals enhances the heterogeneous catalytic reaction performance via providing large quantity of stabile multiscale bubbles which could match the porous structure of catalyst.