The Effect of Electrolyte Solution on Gas Holdups in Bubble Column Using Electrical Resistance Tomography

Jin Haibo1, Han Yuhuan1, Yang Suohe1, He Guangxiang1, Zhu Jianhua2

1Department of Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Beijing 102617.

Email: jinhaibo@bipt.edu.cn.

2 Faculty of Chemical Science and Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102259,China

ABSTRACT

The bubble behaviors were measured in bubble column with 2.5 m high and an inner diameter of 0.16m using an advanced non­contact measurement techniques­Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT). In all the experiments air was used as the gas phase, tap water as liquid phase, a series of experiments were done by adding KCl, ethanol, oil sodium, and glycerol to change liquid conductivity, surface tension and viscosity. The effect of superficial gas velocity, liquid conductivity value on gas holdup, the axial and radial distribution characteristics of gas holdups were investigated in gas liquid system. The results showed that the gas holdup decrease with the increase of surface tension and increase with the increase of viscosity, and electrical conductivity values of liquid had impact on gas holdup. Meanwhile, the settings of initial liquid conductivity slightly influence the gas holdup values, and the experimental data increases with the increase of the initial setting values in the same conditions.

Keywords: Bubble column, Electrical resistance tomography, Local phase holdups, Radial distribution