Heat and mass transfer

Measurement, Modelling and Analysis of Residence Time Distribution Characteristics in a Continuous Hydrothermal Reactor

  • LI Yi ,
  • ZHAI Binjiang ,
  • WANG Junying ,
  • WANG Weizuo ,
  • JIN Hui
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  • State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Online published: 2024-07-15

Supported by

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52242609) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0714400).

Copyright

Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024

Abstract

Understanding the residence time distribution (RTD) of a continuous hydrothermal reactor is of great significance to improve product quality and reaction efficiency. In this work, an on-line measurement system is attached to a continuous reactor to investigate the characteristics of RTD. An approach that can accurately fit and describe the experimental measured RTD curve by finding characteristic values is proposed for analysis and comparison. The RTD curves of three experiment groups are measured and the characteristic values are calculated. Results show that increasing total flow rate and extending effective reactor length have inverse effect on average residence time, but they both cause the reactor to approach a plug flow reactor and improve the materials leading. The branch flow rate fraction has no significant effect on RTD characteristics in the scope of the present work except the weak negative correlation with the average residence time. Besides, the natural convection stirring effect can also increase the average residence time, especially when the forced flow is weak. The analysis reveals that it is necessary to consider the matching of natural convection, forced flow and reactor size to control RTD when designing the hydrothermal reactor and working conditions.

Cite this article

LI Yi , ZHAI Binjiang , WANG Junying , WANG Weizuo , JIN Hui . Measurement, Modelling and Analysis of Residence Time Distribution Characteristics in a Continuous Hydrothermal Reactor[J]. Journal of Thermal Science, 2024 , 33(4) : 1301 -1311 . DOI: 10.1007/s11630-024-1960-x

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