Titre/Title : Separation in a multiphase system : CFD-PBM simulation of a gravity-driven settling process in a liquid-liquid system
Contact : Cyrille Bonamy and Stefan Hoerner (Energétique)
Résumé/Abstract :
Hydroformylation is an important process in the chemical industry for the production of plasticizers, detergents, and drugs. Often, a homogeneous rhodium- or cobalt-based catalyst is employed in this process due to its high selectivity. However, this also leads to a difficulty in the economic recovery of the catalyst. In order to be able to design a more optimized process route, a comprehensive understanding of the separation process is essential.
In order to achieve this goal, the gravity-driven separation of a multiphase system composed of water, 1-dodecene and a surfactant, is investigated. Within the employed ranges of temperature and phase composition, this system exists in a three-phase configuration, consisting of an aqueous, an organic, and a so-called bicontinuous phase. This configuration is investigated experimentally in order to record the time-dependent evolution of the phase heights under different process- and phase-conditions. Based on these experimental data, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model employing the Euler-Euler multi-fluid framework coupled with the Quadrature Method of Moments (QMOM) for the solution of the population balance equations (PBEs) is employed using FLUENT as well as OpenFOAM. In this manner, different models describing drop coalescence can be tested as the choice of the coalescence model strongly impacts the separation efficiency and is, thus, of central importance to the description of a separation process.
This work is part of the Collaborative Research Centre Integrated Chemical Processes in Liquid Multiphase Systems (TRR 63). The financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) is gratefully acknowledged.
Anurag Misra
Research Assistant
Lab. of Fluid Dynamics & Technical Flows (LSS)
University of Magdeburg "Otto-von-Guericke", Germany