TITLE: Gas/Slurry Flow in Coal-Liquefaction Processes (Fluid Dynamics in 3-Phase-Flow Column). Quarterly Technical Progress Report, 1 January-31 March 1981.

AUTHOR: D. H. S. Ying; S. F. Moujaes; R. Sivasubramanian; E. N. Givens.

INST. AUTHOR: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB. TYPE: Technical Report

PUB. COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE], Aug 81, 35p.

ABSTRACT:

This work is a continuation of studies on the fluid dynamics of 3-phase flow to support the design of the 6000 T/D dissolver for the SRC-I demonstration plant. The 6000 T/D SRC-I demonstration plant will employ vertical tubular reactors feeding slurry and gas concurrently upward through these vessels. This reactor is essentially an empty vessel with only a distributor plate located near the inlet. Because the commercial plant represents a considerable scale-up, this program addresses the need for additional data on the behavior of three phase systems in large vessels. Parameters are being investigated at conditions that relate directly to the projected demonstration plant operating conditions. Air/water/sand 3-phase flow systems in both a 5-inch diameter and a 12-inch diameter column are used in this cold-flow simulator study program. The objective is to study the effect of fluid properties such as surface tension and viscosity on the performance of a cold-flow tubular column. Both gas holdup and solids axial distribution in nitrogen/tetralin/sand system have been measured. Our results show that gas holdup in tetralin is higher than that in water for any given gas velocity. Akita and Yoshida's correlation, which describes our air/water/sand gas holdup results very well, fails to fit the tetralin gas holdup data. Solids axial distribution experiments have been performed in both 5-inch and 12-inch diameter columns with nitrogen/tetralin/sand system in a batch mode (no liquid flow). The behavior of solids in tetralin is similar to that observed previously in air/water/sand system. (ERA citation 07:045513)

REPORT NUMBER: DOE/ET/14801-18

CONTRACT NUMBER: AC22-79ET14801