Experimental investigation of hydrodynamics and suspension characteristics in a boiling stirred tank reactor with helical coils

The boiling stirred tank reactor (BSTR) is widely used in the chemical industry, while the relevant basic data of hydrodynamics and suspension characteristics for reactor design are quite limited. In this work, the hydrodynamics and suspension characteristics in a BSTR with helical coils (BSTR@HC) were studied using three types of impellers. Particle image velocimetry and visualization experiments reveal different flow fields and nucleation processes of three impellers. Suspension experiments show that superficial vapor velocity, solid loading, and particle size play an important role for just-suspension impeller speed Njsvand power consumption Pjsv,while cloud height is mainly determined by superficial vapor velocity. Among the three impellers, radial impeller shows the best suspension performance in BSTR@HC. Correlations of Njsvand Pjsvwere developed with relative mean deviations of 2.7% and 4.6%, respectively. Furthermore, a model for the estimation of energy efficiency was developed by evaluate specific power consumption epsilon jsv.