Local bubble behavior in novel gas-liquid-solid air loop reactor with forced circulation slurry phase
A novel gas-liquid-solid three-phase internal air loop reactor(IALR)with forced circulation slurry phase was investigated as a new equipment for emerging chemical processes.Based on a systematic analysis of the complex geometrical structure and the variation of flow pattern in the whole reactor space,the reactor was divided into six regions,the gas distributor region,the slurry feed affected region,the draft tube region,the gas-liquid separation region,the annular and the bottom region.Experiments were conducted in order to investigate the local bubble characteristics in different flow regions.The result showed that the radial evolution of bubble size was quite different in different flow regions.The inverted cone bottom dramatically affected the number and size of the circulating bubbles.A mathematic model was established for each flow region,and the model prediction agreed well with experimental result.