Properties of Bubble Swarm in a Slurry Bubble Column

Abstract

The effects of solid concentration and liquid viscosity on bubble properties such as bubble size and bubble rising velocity were measured with a dual-electroresistivity probe in a slurry bubble column of 0.15 m diameter. The behavior of volume-surface mean bubble diameter, dvs, was analyzed. By addition of solid particles at small gas velocity, the bubble size distribution shifted to a large-size region and the bubble velocity distribution shifted to a large-velocity region. At the same time, the flow pattern changed from homogeneous flow to heterogeneous flow. The effect of solid particles on bubble size, however, became small as the particle diameter decreased or the liquid viscosity increased. The following equation was derived to estimate dvs. dvs= 0.59(VD/έg)2/g where VDis the drift flux of gas, έgis the cross-sectionally averaged gas holdup and g is the gravitational acceleration. © 1987, The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan. All rights reserved.