Effect of fiber type on gas holdup in a cocurrent air–water–fiber bubble column

Similitude Analysis for Gas-Liquid-Fiber Flows in Cocurrent Bubble Columns

“…The pH and surface tension in different fiber suspensions at various conditions are close to that of water except in BCTMP fiber suspensions, where surface tension decreases significantly with increasing fiber mass fraction in the range 0.05% S C S 0.8% and remains relative constant at about 50 mN/m when 1.0% :::;; C :::;; 1.5%. More details are presented in [22].…”

“…In a bubble column with the gas phase distributed by a perforated plate or sparger at the column bottom, coalescence between the newly generated bubbles at the aeration zone due to the slowing down or trapping effects of fiber networks is the major mechanism that fibers affect gas holdup in a bubble column [22]. Because do is directly related to the size of newly generated bubbles [42], the sparger orifice diameter do is used as the characteristic length in quantifying the bubble buoyancy pressure.…”

“…Hence, fiber spacing in a fiber suspension and the ratio between the network strength and the pressure exerted on the fiber network by the bubble due to its buoyancy force are two important factors to bubble movement through a fiber suspension. For multiple bubble motions in a fiber suspension, these two factors also play important roles [5,22]. It is expected that these two factors should also significantly affect gas holdup in a gas-liquid-fiber bubble column.…”

“…Bubble size distribution in gas-liquid-fiber flows and its variation with fiber mass fraction and fiber type have been investigated in semi-batch [8-1 0] and cocurrent bubble columns [11 ]. Gas holdup in gas-liquid-fiber systems has also been studied in both semi-batch [2,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and co current [2,[19][20][21][22][23] bubble columns. Effects of superficial gas and liquid velocity, fiber mass fraction, fiber type, and gas ·Corresponding author, Phone: 515-294-0057, Fax: 515-294-3261, Email: theindel@iastate.edu distribution method on gas holdup were studied in these investigations.…”

Effect of fiber length distribution on gas holdup in a cocurrent air–water–fiber bubble column

“…It also significantly affects the gas holdup in gas-liquid-fiber bubble columns (Su and Heindel, 2003;Tang and Heindel, 2005a). In most practical applications, fiber suspensions are composed of natural fibers that come with a wide fiber length distribution.…”