Liquid-phase RTD studies in a flotation column: an analysis between tanks-in-series and axial dispersion models

Abstract

Abstract The objective of the present study is to evaluate the fluid dynamics of a flotation column (2" in diameter and 6 m in height) based on gas hold-up measurements and, in particular, by applying the liquid-phase RTD (residence time distribution) technique. Additionally, a comparative study is performed between different methodologies used to determine RTD hydrodynamic parameters such as fitting of tanks-in-series and axial dispersion models to the experimental data. The evidence indicates that the axial dispersion and tanks-in-series models agreed well with the experimental data, with a slight advantage of the first model, in terms of obtaining the fluid dynamic parameters. It was proven that the axial dispersion model parameters (Pe or Nd) can be obtained with good precision (R2 > 0.99) within the evaluated ranges from correlations that use the number of tanks in series (N) values estimated by the tanks-in-series model.

Keywords

• flotation column
• fluid dynamics
• residence time distribution