Effects of pH on rheological characteristics and stability of petroleum coke water slurry

In this study, the effects of pH on slurrying properties of petroleum coke water slurry（PCWS） were investigated. The slurrying concentration, rheological characteristics and stability of PCWS were studied with four different types of additives at pH varying from 5 to 11.The results showed that the slurrying concentration, rheological characteristics and stability of PCWS all increased at first and then decreased with increasing pH from 5 to 11,and a pH of around 9 was found to be the most favorable acid–alkali environment to all these three slurrying properties. It was also indicated that only in a moderate alkaline environment can the additives be active enough to react with particle surfaces sufficiently to obtain good slurrying concentration and form a stable three-dimensional network structure, which can support strong pseudoplastic characteristics and good stability. An acid environment was a very unfavorable factor to the slurrying properties of PCWS.

Effects of particle size and concentration on bubble coalescence and froth formation in a slurry bubble column

A new approach for simulating the formation of a froth layer in a slurry bubble column is proposed. Froth is considered a separate phase, comprised of a mixture of gas, liquid, and solid. The simulation was carried out using commercial flow simulation software （FIRE v2014） for particle sizes of 60-150 μm at solid concentrations of 0-40vol%, and superficial gas velocities of 0.02-0.034m/s in a slurry bubble column with a hydraulic diameter of 0.2 m and height of 1.2 m. Modelling calculations were conducted using a Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase approach with k-ε turbulence. The population balance equations for bubble breakup, bubble coalescence rate, and the interfacial exchange of mass and momentum were included in the computational fluid dynamics code by writing subroutines in Fortran to track the number density of different bubble sizes. Flow structure, radial gas holdup, and Sauter mean bubble diameter distributions at different column heights were predicted in the pulp zone, while froth volume fraction and density were predicted in the froth zone. The model was validated using available experimental data, and the predicted and experimental results showed reasonable agreement. To demonstrate the effect of increasing solid concentration on the coalescence rate, a solid-effect multiplier in the coalescence effi- ciency equation was used. The solid-effect multiplier decreased with increasing slurry concentration, causing an increase in bubble coalescence efficiency. A slight decrease in the coalescence efficiency was also observed owing to increasing particle size, which led to a decrease in Sauter mean bubble diam- eter. The froth volume fraction increased with solid concentration. These results provide an improved understanding of the dynamics of slurry bubble reactors in the presence of hydrophilic particles.

Effect of impeller type on mixing of highly concentrated slurries of large particles

Many chemical engineering processes deal with dense suspensions of large solid particles in liquid.Behaviors of such systems are difficult to predict because the many solid particles strongly affect the hydrodynamics produced by the impeller.The main objective was to assess the performances of the PBT,A310,and PF3 impellers in agitating highly concentrated slurries of large particles.Electrical resistance tomography was used to determine the degree of homogeneity and solid particle distribution within the slurry reactor.To gain more insight into the complex behavior of the flow inside the dense suspensions,computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted using a Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase model.Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed to obtain details on the dispersed solid phase distribution and its effect on the mixing quality.We found that the PBT impeller was the most efficient in terms of consuming power and generating velocity and turbulent kinetic energy within the mixing tank.