Boehmite agglomeration through experimental and model approaches: From colloidal system to porous solid

Abstract

The agglomeration dynamics within colloidal boehmite suspensions is crucial to understand the formation of a porous boehmite network during the manufacturing of γ-alumina catalyst carriers. Such carriers are frequently used in petroleum hydrotreating processes and must have specific textural characteristics. The method described in this work enables to model the three-dimensional morphology of colloidal agglomerates of boehmite for different conditions of pH in the colloidal mixture. These agglomerates are then used to generate a boehmite grain, whose textural properties can be numerically estimated. The coagulation kinetics has been studied with experimental Dynamic Light Scattering and Lagrangian model including Brownian dynamics and DLVO interaction potential. The adjustment of the Brownian aggregation kernel of a population-balance model enables to estimate the agglomerates size distribution and fractal dimension.

Keywords

• Colloidal agglomerates
• Brownian dynamics
• Population balance
• Morphological model