Bubble column reactor geometry

The shadow imaging and PIV measurements have been executed in a square laboratory-scale bubble column made of acrylic glass with an inner side length of D = 0.100 m and a height of H= 2 m (Figure 1a). It comprises 6 main parts: two 0.535 m long inlet and outlet sections (Figure 1a, #1 and #2), the water inlet through four 1" pipes on top (Figure 1a, #3), a 2 m high acrylic pipe for gas ventilation on top of the column with an inner diameter of 0.04 m (Figure 1a, #4), the 1 m long effective measurement section (Figure 1a, #5 and Figure 1b) and an interchangeable gas distributor (Figure 1a, #6 and Figure 1c). The distributor consists of 7 capillaries placed in line with 12.5 mm equal spacing in the center of the bubble column. Bubbles in a size range of 1 to 9 mm are produced by introducing air through capillaries of different diameter and material (0.13 mm / stainless steel, 0.18 mm / Teflon and 3.6 mm / PEEK). The nozzles are separately connected to seven magnetic valves (Type 6712, Buerkert), which are supplied by a mass flow controller (F-201CV, Bronkhorst) and the pressurized gas pipeline.