Numerical study on the performance improvement of bubble columns incorporating innovative helical tube internals

IF 3.9 3区工程技术 Q3 ENERGY & FUELS

Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification Pub Date : 2025-07-07 DOI:10.1016/j.cep.2025.110435

Peng Pan , Shi-Jiao Li , Hui-Long Wei , Xi-Bao Zhang , Zheng-Hong Luo

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Abstract

The bubble columns widely applied in chemical engineering were confronted with poor contact efficiency between different phases. In this study, novel helical tube internals were designed and their performance was evaluated in a 0.38 m diameter bubble column using air and Tellus oil. Eulerian multi-fluid simulations revealed that double helical internals increased the overall gas holdup by 33.5 % at 0.25 m/s, while promoting a more uniform gas holdup distribution and presenting a significant reduction in the turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation rate. Moreover, the turbulence characteristic length was reduced by internals, indicating the generation of small-scale vortices that enhanced gas holdup. This discovery provided a novel design strategy for bubble columns: the bottleneck of uneven gas distribution and low interphase contact efficiency was improved through helical internals to optimize the turbulence, thereby improving the design and scale-up of bubble columns.

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采用新型螺旋管内构件的气泡塔性能改进的数值研究

在化工中广泛应用的汽泡塔存在相间接触效率差的问题。在本研究中，设计了新型螺旋管内件，并在直径0.38 m的气泡柱中使用空气和Tellus油对其性能进行了评估。欧拉多流体模拟表明，在0.25 m/s的速度下，双螺旋内装使总气含率提高了33.5%，同时使气含率分布更加均匀，湍流动能和湍流耗散率显著降低。此外，湍流特征长度被内件减小，表明小尺度涡的产生提高了气含率。这一发现为鼓泡塔的设计提供了一种新的策略：通过螺旋内件优化湍流度，改善气相分布不均匀和界面接触效率低的瓶颈，从而改进鼓泡塔的设计和放大。

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来源期刊

Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 工程技术-工程：化工

CiteScore

7.80

自引率

9.30%

发文量

408

审稿时长

49 days

期刊介绍： Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification is intended for practicing researchers in industry and academia, working in the field of Process Engineering and related to the subject of Process Intensification.Articles published in the Journal demonstrate how novel discoveries, developments and theories in the field of Process Engineering and in particular Process Intensification may be used for analysis and design of innovative equipment and processing methods with substantially improved sustainability, efficiency and environmental performance.