High liquid holdup airlift tower loop reactor: I. Riser hydrodynamic characteristics

The hydrodynamics of high liquid holdup airlift reactors have not been wide ly studied, in this work we study the riser of a reactor of this type, focu ssing on the influence of the gas flow rate and the submergence ratio on va rious hydrodynamic parameters: liquid circulation velocity, gas holdup, and gas residence time in the liquid, A notable difference in reactor behavior is observed with a submergence ratio equal to unity and with a ratio lower than unity. Correlations for the parameters studied in different condition s, as several submergence ratios, are proposed, these are extrapolations of other equations proposed in the literature for airlift reactors. The react or studied in this work can be thought of as an element of a great pool for med by multiple elements of similar flux type. The studied parameters are s hown to be very important for subsequent hydrodynamic and mass transfer mod eling of the reactor. (C) 2000 Society of Chemical industry.