Mechanical stress on suspended particles in two- and three-phase airlift loop reactors and bubble columns

The effect of power input, fluid phase viscosity and solids loading on the mechanical stress on suspended particles was examined. Experiments were carried out in an airlift loop reactor and a bubble column operated in two- and three-phase mode. The disintegration of a shear sensitive floc system was observed with an optical in-line particle system analyser and information about the mechanical stress was obtained by means of mathematical analysis of the raw data. The volumetric power input has been derived to be the governing factor and a linear dependence between volumetric power input and resulting mechanical stress was observed. The addition of a solid phase leads to a drastical change of mechanical stress on the particles with a dominating increase of the stress at high solids loadings. Likewise higher fluid phase viscosity leads to higher mechanical stress on the floc system.