Investigation of vertical mixing in thin-layer cascade reactors using computational fluid dynamics

Severin, Timm Steffen; Apel, Andreas Christoph; Brück, Thomas; Weuster‐Botz, Dirk

doi:10.1016/j.cherd.2018.01.036

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…By applying this simple scaling rule to literature results, the found t I values are larger than 10 2 s for raceways , or close to 1 s in falling‐film devices . Considering a microalgae characteristic time around 0.3 s as observed in this work, the raceway could be simulated using the hypothesis of a full integration kinetic.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 73%

How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors

et al. 2019

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The microalgae growth rate in photobioreactors responds with inertia to light stimuli. Here, light variations experienced by the algae are accessed through a coupling of an irradiance field calculation and a Lagrangian particle tracking. The response of algae to fluctuating light is then described by a relaxation model involving a single time constant, the value of which is identified from published data. The overall growth rate is calculated as the sum of individual growth rates of all particles. Instantaneous adaptation and full integration asymptotic behaviors are recovered whilst a finite time constant reveals that the overall growth rate is dependent both on mixing and light distribution. This methodology thus quantitatively relates the design parameters to the photobioreactor performance.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 73%

How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors

et al. 2019

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“…Mesh generation process for the channel: (A) 3D view of the basic blocks used for the mesh generation in blockMesh; (B) cross section of the final mesh. Image adapted from .…”

Section: Reactor Unit Models: Results and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, comparing the measurements with the empirical correlation, it was found that a Manning coefficient of n = 0.010 shows better agreement. Extending the Manning equation to several simulative operation conditions (channel slope 0.5 ‐ 4°, volume flow 1.6 ‐ 3.6 L/s), a maximum deviation of 12.7% for the fluid height and 12% for the velocity was found (compare ).…”

Section: Reactor Unit Models: Results and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the inlet, a 1 cm high area is defined as inlet boundary, where the fluid enters the channel. Above this inlet the geometry [15].…”

Section: Mesh Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another development is the widespread availability of computational resources to investigate reactors using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A number of different studies can be found in literature which simulate several characteristics of photobioreactors, among others mixing [13][14][15][16][17], light availability [18][19][20][21], or shear rates and mass transfer [22] (list nonexhaustive, for a review see [23]). However, none of these studies discusses TLC systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Validated numerical fluid simulation of a thin‐layer cascade photobioreactor in OpenFOAM

Severin

Brück

Weuster‐Botz

2018

Engineering in Life Sciences

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Recently, microalgae have been considered as a promising alternative for the production of biofuels from CO2. For the efficient cultivation of these microalgae, several types of photobioreactors have been designed and Pilot scale photobioreactors have been used to assess the performance of these reactors. Therein the primarily investigated reactor type is the Raceway Pond. However, the less researched Thin‐Layer Cascade Photobioreactor (TLC) shows a high potential for efficient production processes. Unfortunately, for low‐value products like biofuels costs must be kept to a minimum for an economic operation. To facilitate this, 3D Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations can be employed to estimate performance of reactor variants e.g. with respect to power input and mixing. Since up to now little effort has been put into the modelling of TLC reactors, this report aims to present a simulation approach for these reactors types that allows simple adaptation to different geometric or operational boundary conditions. All models have been generated for a two‐phase mixture in OpenFOAM. To demonstrate its applicability, validation measurements with a physical unit have been performed and were compared to the simulation results. With errors in the order of 10 % a successful simulation of the reactor geometry could be proven.

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Process Engineering Aspects for the Microbial Conversion of C1 Gases

Weuster‐Botz

2021

Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology

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Investigation of vertical mixing in thin-layer cascade reactors using computational fluid dynamics

Cited by 17 publications

References 29 publications

How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors

How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors

Validated numerical fluid simulation of a thin‐layer cascade photobioreactor in OpenFOAM

Process Engineering Aspects for the Microbial Conversion of C1 Gases

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