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Porous gas distributors in bubble columns. Effect of liquid presence on distributor pressure drop. Effect of start‐up procedure on distributor performance
Author(s) -
Prakash A.,
Briens C. L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450680204
Subject(s) - distributor , pressure drop , bubble , mass transfer , porosity , mechanics , drop (telecommunication) , materials science , mass fraction , petroleum engineering , chromatography , chemistry , thermodynamics , composite material , mechanical engineering , engineering , physics
Many bubble columns use porous gas distributors to obtain small bubbles and large mass transfer rates. The distributor pressure drop contributes greatly to the energy consumption of bubble columns. This study found that the presence of liquid increased this pressure drop by 200 to 900% at practical gas flowrates. A model was developed to predict this increase. It assumes that gas flows through a fraction only of the pores so as to minimize the distributor pressure drop. The mass transfer performance of a porous distributor is affected by its startup procedure. The best performance was obtained by starting the gas flow before liquid was introduced into the column. A model was developed to explain these results.