ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Agitation of a gas-solid-liquid system in a vessel with high-speed impeller and vertical tubular coil

Marta Major-Godlewska and Joanna Karcz

Department of Chemical Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, al. Piastów 42, PL-71 065 Szczecin, Poland

E-mail: Joanna.Karcz@zut.edu.pl

Abstract: Experimental results of gas hold-up, power consumption and residence time of gas bubbles in a gas-solid-liquid system produced in an agitated vessel equipped with a high-speed impeller and a vertical tubular coil are presented in this paper. Critical agitator speed, needed for the dispersion of gas bubbles and solid particles in liquid were also identified. The studies were carried out in an agitated vessel of the inner diameter D = 0.634 m and the working liquid volume of about 0.2 m³. A tubular coil of the diameter of 0.7D, consisting of 24 vertical tubes of the diameter of 0.016D, was located inside the flat-bottomed vessel. The agitated vessel was equipped with a Rushton turbine with six blades or an A 315 impeller with four blades. Both impellers had diameter, d, equal to 0.33D. The vessel was filled with liquid up to the height H = D. In this study, air and particles of sea sand with the mean diameter of 335 μm and the concentration of up to 3.0 mass % were dispersed in distilled water as the liquid phase. The measurements were carried out within the turbulent regime of the fluid flow in the agitated vessel. Results of the measurements were processed graphically and mathematically. Lower values of the critical agitator speed, n _JSG, needed for simultaneous dispersion of gas bubbles and particles with the solids concentration from 0.5 mass % to 2 mass %, were obtained for the vessel equipped with the A 315 impeller. Higher values of the specific power consumption were reached for the vessel with the Rushton turbine. Higher values of the gas hold-up and residence time of the gas bubbles in the fluid were obtained for the system equipped with the Rushton turbine. Results of the gas hold-up as a function of the specific power consumption, superficial gas velocity and solids concentration were approximated with good accuracy using Eq. (5).

Keywords: agitated vessel – Rushton turbine – A 315 impeller – gas-solid-liquid system – gas hold-up – power consumption – residence time

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-012-0148-0

Chemical Papers 66 (6) 566–573 (2012)