Bubble column are widely used in many industries as reactors or gas-liquid contactors. Typical examples can be found in oxidation, wastewater treatment, microalgae cultivation, hydro-generation, and more. Bubble columns have the advantage of being simple in geometry, easy to manufacture, no moving parts are needed, easy to operate and being cost-effective. Bubble columns can be easily transformed into photo bioreactors or membrane photobioreactors (MPBR) when biological means are used to treat wastewater. Compared to conventional systems, MPBRs work at high cell concentrations which will lead to accumulation of cells onto the membrane and will cause membrane fouling. In order to reduce the membrane fouling, researches, have performed experiments using granular particles in a microalgal system, which resulted in the reduction of cake layer formation. However, there are many other hydro-dynamical factors which will help to reduce the cake layer formation even further, which are presented below: 1- By creating vortex: using spargers with angles one should conduct experiments/simulations and find the optimum angle in gas holdup, along with different inlet velocities and report the shear stress caused by each one and find the best setup. 2- Adding particles: adding granular particles to the system 3- Trying different fluids The aim of this study would be investigating the hydrodynamic effects of these granular solid particles on the whole system, when the sparger creates vortex, and when the properties of the fluid within the reactor is changed.
Requirements:
- Knowledge in fluid dynamics and modeling of physical/chemical processes
- Knowledge of hydrodynamics of bio-reactors
- Knowledge of CFD software (preferably OpenFoam)
- Interest in performing multiphase simulations and experiments development
- Good English skills
Further Information:
- Immediate start
Interested?