Cold model study of top blowing effect on dispersion in a channel reactor

The effect of flow regime, gas bubbling rate, and bubbler position on vessel dispersion number, D/uL, was studied in a room temperature, laboratory model of a channel reactor. The model reactor was a perspex channel, 200 cm long and 20 cm wide, in which tetrachloroethylene and water were used to simulate the metal and slag, respectively. Two systems were investigated, namely single phase and two phase counter current systems. The liquid phase Reynolds numbers were in the range of 200 - 1700, gas bubbling rates were from 800 to 4000 cmVmin., and the bubbler position was varied from 0 - 2 cm from the 'slag-metal' interface (for counter current case), and 0 - 4 cm from the water surface (for single phase case). The vessel dispersion number, D/uL, was obtained by an RTD technique using a thermal tracer and measuring the response by means of a thermistor of high sensitivity, wired to a data logger via a bridge circuit.