(382b) Investigate the Solid Phase Distribution and Turbulent Parameters in Slurry Bubble Column with/without Dense Internals Using Radioactive Particle Tracking (RPT) Technique

Radioactive particle tracking (RPT) is a non-invasive technique that can measure and visualize the 3D flow field and the liquid or/and solid-phase turbulence parameters in different multiphase flow systems. It consisted of a radioactive particle tracer close to the density of the phase that needed to be investigated and set of NaI detectors located around the column. The bubble/slurry bubble columns are known as one of the most widely used commercial multiphase flow reactors that consist of three phases (gas-liquid-solid). The experimental works have been carried out in a 14 cm inner diameter and 185 cm height Plexiglas column. Compressed air was continuously passing through the perforated plate on the bottom of the column with two superficial gas velocities (0.3 and 0.4 m/s). Reverse osmosis (RO) water was used as the liquid phase, which was in batch mode, while the fine glass beads with 350 µm were utilized as the solid phase by 9.1% solids loading as volume fraction. This work studied the effect of the dense internals covering around 25% from the cross-sectional area on the solid phase-field velocities and hydrodynamic parameters. Co-60 gamma-ray radioisotope particle was modified to match the density of the glass beads (~2500 g/cm³) that needed to be tracked. The results show that the solid phase distribution is non-uniform along the column height. More glass beads have remained at the bottom of the column during the operation. The solid axial velocity increases by increasing the superficial gas velocity due to the gas bubbles’ momentum that can carry the solid particles faster. The solid phase’s turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) increases the superficial gas velocity in SBCR. However, the internals increased the time-averaged axial solid velocity compared to without internals near the column’s center by ~20% and ~25% at gas velocities 0.3 and 0.4 m/s, respectively.