Fluid flow in process units Exercise 9

1) Example 14-2-1 and 2 Geankoplis, Transport properties and Unit operations

Go through the derivation from Darcy’s equation from the lectures into a useful filtration
equation. You find it below.

Many properties like porosity of the cake , particle size Dp, particle shape factor , and
are typically unknown, parameters are lumped together and cake properties are usually
determined by experiments.

The equations you really need to solve the problem are below in section CONSTANT-
PRESSURE FILTRATION IN PRACTICE.

a) Evaluate filtration constants α and Rsv for CaCO3 slurry in water. You can find the
results and physical properties of one experiment in file filtration.xls. We are using
constant pressure in the filtration.

b) Then use your results to calculate what is the filtering time of a press with 20 frames,
A= 0.873 m2 per frames when you have to filtrate 3.37 m3 of filtrate. Hint: calculate new
K and B, they are proportional to A both in their own way.

NOMENCLATURE

 specific cake resistance, m/kg

0 specific cake resistance, constant in Eq (36), m/kg
 density of filtrate, kg/m3
 viscosity of filtrate, Pas
c concentration of solids in suspension, kg(solid) / m3(fluid+solid)
pK pressure drop through cake, Pa
pSV pressure drop through filter media, Pa
p overall pressure drop, Pa
A total area of filter, m2
RK cake resistance, 1/m
RSV filter medium resistance, 1/m
S compressibility of cake, dimensionless
t time, s
V volume of filtrate, m3
V volume flow of filtrate, m3/s

In cake filtration the liquid passes through two resistances in series: that of the cake and
that of the filter media, see figure 1.
 p3 p2 p1
dp
Filter media cake

filtrate feed

dL
Figure 1.

The overall pressure drop (p) at any time is sum of pressure drops over medium (pSV)
and cake (pK):
p  pK  pSV  ( p1  p2 )  ( p2  p3 )

In the lectures Darcy’s law was used

kA p
Q
 L

It has been shown that the pressure drop through the cake can be described with Kozeny-
Carman equation (which is actually the laminar part of the Ergun’s equation).

Kozeny-Carman equation to a differential part of the cake is following:

dp u  (1   ) 2
 150 2 0 2
dL  Dp 3

This can be developed to the following form

150(1   ) u0
pK (t )  2 2 mK (t )
 D p  P 3 A
and further
u0
p K (t )   mK (t )
A
where term  is specific cake resistance

Specific cake resistance is:

150(1   )
 2 2
 D p  P 3

Specific cake resistance depends on solids to be filtered and etc. pressure. Equation
below can be used to calculate specific cake resistance:
A p(t )

u0 mK (t )
Hence, porosity of the cake , particle size Dp, particle shape factor , and are typically
unknown, specific cake resistance is experimentally determined parameter. If specific
cake resistance is constant during experiment:
A p

u 0 mK

p K (t )
V0  Au0 
  mK (t )
from which
p K (t ) p K (t ) p (t )
u0    K
  mK (t )  mK (t ) RK 

A A
where overall resistance is divided to cake resistance RK and to viscosity of fluid. An
analogical equation can be written to filter media:
p (t )
u 0  SV
RSV

from which
pSV (t )  RSV u0

where RSV is filter media resistance.

The total resistance can be defined:

  mK (t ) 
p(t )  pK (t )  pSV (t )  RK  RSV u0    RSV u0
 A 
In practice, the total mass of solid in the cake m K and the linear velocity u 0 are replaced
by function of the total volume of filtrate V collected to time t. The linear velocity u is
given by the equation:
V (t )
u 0 (t ) 
A

where V is the total volume of filtrate collected from the start of the filtration to time t.
Since filtrate must pass through the entire cake, V/A is the same for all layers and u is
independent of L.

It is assumed that all solid in feed will stay in the cake. This gives:
dmK
 cV
dt
When the concentration of solids in feed is constant, integration between the limits (0,0)
and (t, mK) gives:
 mK ( t ) t t
mK (t )  o
dmK   cVdt  c  Vdt  cV (t )
0 0
thus total volume of filtrate is:
t
V (t )   Vdt
0

mK (t )  cV (t )

The total resistance is:

  mK (t ) 
p(t )    RSV u0
 A 

Substituting flow rate u and mass of solids mK gives:

  c V (t )  V (t )
p(t )    RSV  
 A  A

This is a basic equation for filtration, where assumptions are:

 constant concentration of solids in feed

The total volume flow of filtrate can be defined as time derivative of total volume of
filtrate:
dV
 V
dt

thus
  cV  dV / dt
p    RSV  
 A  A

This is a basic equation for filtration in practice, where assumptions are:

 constant concentration of solids in feed
 constant density

CONSTANT-PRESSURE FILTRATION IN PRACTICE

If overall pressure drop is constant, the above equation can be integrated analytically:
dt c R
 V  SV  KV  B
dV pA 2
pA

where new parameters are:

 c RSV
K B
pA 2
pA

Integration between the limits (0,0) and (t, V) gives:

t V


0
dt   ( KV  B)dV
0

Assume that parameters K and B are constant:

K
t  V 2  BV
2

from which
t K
 V B
V 2

This is a basic equation for constant-pressure filtration in practice, which assumptions

are:
 constant concentration of solids in feed
 constant density
 K and B are constant

Thus a plot t / V versus V will be linear, with a slope equal to K / 2 and an intercept of
B. From these parameters obtained from the plot the values of  and RSV may be
calculated.

2) Air at 311 K is flowing through a packed bed of spheres having diameter of 12.7 mm.
The void fraction ε is 0.38 and the bed diameter is 0.61 m and the length of the bed is
2.44 m. The air enters the bed at 1.1 atm abs at rate of 0.358 kg/s. Calculate the pressure
drop of the bed. Note that the pressure is changing in the bed, use the average pressure in
the calculation. Viscosity 1.9 x 10-5 Pa s

3) Design the diameter of fixed bed reactor. The pressure drop allowed is 10 kPa/m.
Production is 10 m3/h, mean viscosity of the fluid is 0.0004 Pa s, the size of catalyst
particles is 0.0004 m, void fraction 0.4. Density of the fluid is 800 kg/m3. Imagine that
coking would reduce the void fraction. How much must the void fraction reduce to
double the pressure loss?

4) Ethene is polymerized in a fluidized bed reactor depicted in figure below. Feed is

ethene 40 mass %, and hydrogen. The reactions are in 80 °C temperature and pressure 20
bar (abs). The viscosity of the feed is μ = 0.011 mPa s. It can be considered an ideal gas.
The once trough conversion of ethane is 2 %
The catalyst fed into the reactor is almost spherical MgCl2 –based catalyst (Ø > 50 μm,
ρ = 2300 kg / m3). The ethene is polymerized on the surface of the catalyst, thus the
particle size grows. These particles are also almost spherical and at least 0.5 mm of size
and density of 930 kg / m3, ε = 0.4 and φ = 0.9. In the following, we calculate the two
diameters of the reactor. In the lower part of the reactor d (Figure below) the minimum
velocity must be high enough to ensure fluidization umin, but the velocity must be small
enough umax to prevent the particles to be carried away from the bed. The enlargement
part of the reactor must be wide enough to ensure that smallest catalyst particles does not
escape from the reactor.

a) Calculate umin and umax

umin using the equation derived from Ergun

Drag exerted on a particle bed by the fluid flow = gravitational force of the
particle bed =>

(1   ) 2 2 u s (1   )  g u s
2

150  1.75  (1   )(  s   g ) g
 3d 2  3d

us = umin

and umax using the following correlation

 d 3p G  S  G g
Ar 
G
2

2
 
 Ar 
Re  18 1   1
 9 
 
 Re G
ut 
d p G

b) You want to produce 4000 t / a. Operation of the plant 8000 h/a. Determine the
diameter of the rector. You must use a value between umin ja umax. One choice is
the logarithmic mean of these velocities.

c) Calculate the diameter of the upper part. (use max velocity of catalyst particles)