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Oxygen transfer to slurries treated in a rotating drum operated at atmospheric pressure

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Abstract

The objective of this work was to determine (1) the effect of rotational speed (N) and lifters on the oxygen transfer coefficient (k L) of a mineral solution and (2) the effect of solids concentration of a slurry soil-mineral solution on k L, at a fixed value N (0.25 s−1); in both cases the treatment was carried out in an aerated rotating drum reactor (RDR) operated at atmospheric pressure. First, the k L for the mineral solution was in the range 6.38 × 10−4–7.69 × 10−4 m s−1, which was of the same order of magnitude as those calculated for closed rotating drums supplied with air flow. In general, k L of RDR implemented with lifters was superior or equal to that of RDR without lifters. For RDR implemented with lifters, k L increased with N in the range 6.65 × 10−4–10.51 × 10−4 m s−1, whereas k L of RDR without lifters first increased with N up to N = 0.102 s−1, and decreased beyond this point. Second, regarding soil slurry experiments, an abrupt fall of k L (ca. 50%) at low values of the solid concentration (C v) and an asymptotic pattern at high C v were observed at N = 0.25 s−1. These results suggest that mass transfer phenomena were commanded by the slurry properties and a semi-empirical equation of the form Sh = f(Re, Sc) seems to corroborate this finding.

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Abbreviations

A :

gas–liquid interfacial area in the rotating drum (m2)

A segment :

segment of area in the flat face of the rotating drum (m2)

a :

gas–liquid interfacial area per unit liquid (or slurry) volume (m−1)

b :

parameter of Eq. 1

\( C^{{\text{*}}}_{{{{\rm O}}_{2} }} \) :

oxygen saturated solubility (mol O2 m−3)

\( C_{{\rm O}_2} \) :

oxygen concentration in the bulk liquid (mineral solution or slurry) (mol O2 m−3)

C v :

volumetric fraction of solids, dimensionless

d :

parameter of Eq. 1

d p :

diameter of the solid particle

D h :

hydraulic diameter (D h = 4 × r h) (m)

D AB :

oxygen (A) diffusivity in the mineral solution or slurry (B) (m2 s−1)

Fr :

dimensionless number of Froude, \( Fr = \frac{{\upsilon ^{{\text{2}}}_{{{\rm T}}} }} {{g \times D_{{{\rm h}}} }} \)

g :

gravitational acceleration (m s−2)

H :

height of slurry in the RDR, m

ID:

internal diameter of the rotating drum (m)

IDah :

internal diameter of the aeration holes (m)

k L :

coefficient of mass transfer (m s−1)

k *L :

coefficient of mass transfer at large C v (m s−1)

k L a :

volumetric coefficient of mass transfer (s−1)

k L0 :

coefficient of mass transfer in the mineral solution (0% v/v of solids) treated in a rotating drum at 0.25 s−1

l :

cord length of mineral solution (or slurry) in the flat face of the RDR (m)

L :

length of the rotating drum (m)

m :

parameter of Eq. 1

n :

parameter of Eq. 1

N :

rotational speed (s−1)

N c :

critical velocity (s−1)

OTR:

oxygen transfer rate (mol s−1)

RDR:

rotating drum reactor

Re :

dimensionless number of Reynolds, \( Re = \frac{ {\upsilon _{\rm T}} \times \rho \times D_{\rm h} } {\mu } \)

r :

internal radius of the rotating drum (m)

r h :

hydraulic radius (m)

S :

exponent in the Eq. 12. It is interpreted as a sensitivity coefficient, dimensionless

Sc :

dimensionless number of Schmidt, \( Sc = \frac{\mu } {\rho \times D_{\rm AB}} \)

Sh :

dimensionless number of Sherwood, \( Sh = \frac{{k_{{{\rm L}}} \times D_{{{\rm h}}} }} {{D_{{{{\rm AB}}}} }} \)

V :

mineral solution (or slurry) volume (m3)

μ :

viscosity of the mineral solution (Pa s)

μ B :

viscosity of the slurry (Pa s)

ρ :

density of the mineral solution (kg m−3)

ρ B :

density of the slurry (kg m−3)

υ T :

tangential velocity (m s−1)

A:

oxygen

ah:

aeration holes

B:

slurry

h:

hydraulic

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Acknowledgment

Authors wish to thank to CONACYT and SEMARNAT for the financial support of this work through the project SEMARNAT-2002-C01-0154.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biotecnología y Bioingeniería, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV-IPN, México), P.O. Box 14-740, Mexico D.F., C.P. 07000, Mexico

    Josefina Barrera-Cortés, Efraín Manilla-Pérez & Héctor M. Poggi-Varaldo

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  1. Josefina Barrera-Cortés
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  2. Efraín Manilla-Pérez
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  3. Héctor M. Poggi-Varaldo
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Correspondence to Josefina Barrera-Cortés.

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Barrera-Cortés, J., Manilla-Pérez, E. & Poggi-Varaldo, H.M. Oxygen transfer to slurries treated in a rotating drum operated at atmospheric pressure. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 29, 391–398 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-006-0088-6

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