Small-Scale Phenomena in Reactive Bubbly Flows: Experiments, Numerical Modeling, and Applications

Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, vol. 12, pp. 625–643

Abstract

Improving the yield and selectivity of chemical reactions is one of the challenging tasks in paving the way for a more sustainable and climate-friendly economy. For the industrially highly relevant gas-liquid reactions, this can be achieved by tailoring the timescales of mixing to the requirements of the reaction. Although this has long been known for idealized reactors and time- and space-averaged processes, considerable progress has been made recently on the influence of local mixing processes. This progress has become possible through joint research between chemists, mathematicians, and engineers. We present the reaction systems with adjustable kinetics that have been developed, which are easy to handle and analyze. We show examples of how the selectivity of competitive-consecutive reactions can be controlled via local bubble wake structures. This is demonstrated for Taylor bubbles and bubbly flows under technical conditions. Highly resolvednumerical simulations confirm the importance of the bubble wake structure for the performance of a particular chemical reaction and indicate tremendous potential for future process improvements.

Authors 5

1. Michael Schlüter

   Hamburg University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Multiphase Flows, Hamburg University of Technology, 21073 Hamburg, Germany;

2. Sonja Herres‐Pawlis Aachen Institute for Anorganic Chemistry

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Anorganic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany;

3. Ulrich Nieken

   University of Stuttgart

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Chemical Process Engineering, University of Stuttgart, 70199 Stuttgart, Germany;,

4. Ute S. Tuttlies

   University of Stuttgart

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Chemical Process Engineering, University of Stuttgart, 70199 Stuttgart, Germany;,

5. Dieter Bothe

   Technische Universität Darmstadt

   Affiliation as printed

   Mathematical Modeling and Analysis, Department of Mathematics, Technical University of Darmstadt, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany;