An Axial Dispersion Model for Evaporating Bubble Column Reactor
摘要
Evaporating bubble column reactor (EBCR) is a kind of aerated reactor in which the reaction heat is removed by the evaporation of volatile reaction mixture. In this paper, a mathematical model that accounts for the gas-liquid exothermic reaction and axial dispersions of both gas and liquid phase is employed to study the performance of EBCR for the process of p-xylene(PX) oxidation. The computational results show that there are remarkable concentration and temperature gradients in EBCR for high ratio of height to diameter (H/DT). The temperature is lower at the bottom of column and higher at the top, due to rapid evaporation induced by the feed gas near the bottom. The concentration profiles in the gas phase are more nonuniform than those (except PX) in the liquid phase, which causes more solvent burning consumption at high H/DT ratio. For p-xylene oxidation, the optimal H/DT is around 5.