Hydrodynamics and bubble behaviour in a three-phase two-stage internal loop airlift reactor

Local hydrodynamics of a gas–liquid–solid system,such as bubble circulation regime,gas holdup,liquid velocity and axial profile of solid concentration,are studied in a two-stage internal loop airlift reactor.Empirical correlations for gas holdup and liquid velocity are proposed to ease the reactor design and scale-up.Different bubble circulation regimes were displayed in the first(lower) and second(upper) stages.Increasing superficial gas velocity and solid loading can promote regime transition of the second stage,and the gas holdup of the second stage is higher than that of the lower stage.In addition,the effects of solid loading on bubble behaviour are experimentally investigated for each stage.It is found that bubble size in the downcomer decreases with the presence of solid particles,and bubble size distribution widens under higher superficial gas velocity and lower solid loading.

Oilfield produced water treatment in internal-loop airlift reactor using electrocoagulation/flotation technique

Oilfield produced water is large quantities of salty water trapped in underground formations and subsisted under high temperatures and pressures that are brought to the surface along with oil during production. Produced water(PW) contains a lot of pollutants such as hydrocarbons and metals, this water must be treated before disposal. Therefore, different techniques are being used to treat produced water. Electrocoagulation is an efficient treatment technique involving the dissolution of anodes and formation of electro-coagulants, while the simultaneous generation of H_2 bubbles at the cathode leads to the pollutant removal by flotation. Electrocoagulation(EC)method is one of the most promising and widely used processes to treat oilfield produced water. In the present work, a conventional internal-loop(draught tube) airlift reactor was utilized as electrocoagulation/flotation cell for PW treatment by inserting two aluminum electrodes in the riser section of the airlift reactor. The EC airlift reactor was operated in a batch mode for the liquid phase. Different experimental parameters were studied on the oil and turbidity removal efficiencies such as current density, initial pH, electrocoagulation time, and air injection.The experimental results showed that mixing of the oil droplets in the PW was accomplished using only the liquid recirculation resulted by H_2 microbubbles generated by EC process which enhanced the oil removal. The experimental results further showed that the EC time required achieving ≥ 90% oil removal efficiency decreases from 46 to 15 min when operating current density increases from 6.8 to 45.5 mA·cm^(-2). This reactor type was found to be highly efficient and less energy consuming compared to conventional existing electrochemical cells which used mechanical agitation.

Flow mixing model of liquid phase in an internal airlift loop reactor

Residence time distribution (RTD) analysis of liquid phase was conducted in an internal airlift loop reactor (AL) and a bubble column (BC) with the tracer response technique. These data were simulated and compared through several flow mixing models. The modeling results of two-parameter model indicated that there were higher ratio of full mixing zones and lower ratio of bypass flow in AL than in BC. Then a completely mixed-plug flow parallel combined (four-parameter) model was established. Modeling results show that it is more precise and more obvious than two-parameter model.

Correlation between the Cyclic Stress Behavior and Microstructure in 316LN based on the Analysis of Hysteresis Loops

Total strain controlled cyclic test was performed on 316 LN under uniaxial loadings. Through the partitioning of hysteresis loops, the evolution of two components of cyclic flow stress, the internal and effective stresses, was reported. The former one determines the cyclic stress response. Based on the transmission electron microscopic（TEM） observation on specimens loaded with scheduled cycles, it is found that planar dislocation structures prevail during the entire cyclic process at low strain amplitude, while a remarkable dislocation rearrangement from planar structures to heterogeneous spatial distributions is companied by a cyclic softening behavior at high strain amplitude. The competition between the evolution of the intergranular and the intragranular components of the internal stress caused by the transition of slip mode induces the cyclic hardening and softening at high strain levels. The intergranular internal stress represents the most part of the internal stress at low strain level.