Mathematical Modeling of the Hydrodynamics of an EGSB Reactor

Generally, in the literature, the hydrodynamic behavior of an EGSB (expanded granular sludge bed) reactor is considered as a complete mix reactor. Few works study in detail the flow of such reactors. The aim of this work was to study, in detail, the hydrodynamics of an EGSB reactor and to propose a mathematical model to describe its flow. A 3.04 L reactor was used with HRT (hydraulic retention time) of 12 h, affluent flowrate of 4 mL·min -1 , and the recirculation flow rate was changed to study three different upflow velocities in the tube (6, 8 and 10 m·h -1 ). The pulse input method was used, with the use of blue dextran as tracer. In order to consider the dimensional differences between the tube and the separator, the reactor was divided into two regions (tube and separator). Initially, a model with two tubular reactors with dispersion in series was proposed and the Peclet number was adjusted for the two regions. It was observed that the region of the tube shows the behavior of a tubular reactor with high dispersion, whereas the region of the separator shows the behavior of a complete mix reactor. In order to simplify the equation, and by knowing that the concentration profile along the reactor was almost constant, a model of two CSTRs (continuous stirred tank reactors) was proposed in series and the number of reactors (N) was set. The best combination was five CSTRs, three in the tube region and two in the separator region. The presented models were equivalent and can be used to describe the hydrodynamic behavior of the EGSB reactor.