High liquid holdup airlift tower loop reactor: II. Downcomer hydrodynamic modeling

Abstract

Hydrodynamics in the downcomer of a high liquid holdup airlift tower loop reactor, whose riser has been previously studied, is presented. A visual procedure with colorimetric tracers injected into the top part of the riser and monitored by means of a video camera system, for subsequent treatment of the obtained images, was used. The tracer front advance curves have suggested a compartmental model of three parameters to be used for physical transport processes. # 2000 Society of Chemical Industry Keywords: airlift reactor; hydrodynamics; modeling; submergence ratio; high downcomer to riser ratioTracer concentration in the reactor iÀ1Tracer concentration in the reactor j (mg dm À3 ) f Fitted parameter, eqns (10) ε a Gas holdup in the riser (dimensionless)