A particle’s perspective on mass transfer in solid-liquid suspensions

University Talks Link: http://talks.is.ed.ac.uk/talk/961/show  

Multiphase reactors are at the heart of the chemical process industry. At the phase interfaces, important, often rate-limiting transfer processes take place. In this presentation I focus on mass transfer between continuous liquid phase and a solids phase that is suspended in the liquid in the form of particles. Agitation and fluidization of dense solid-liquid suspensions are common ways of enhancing transfer rates, and slip velocities between the phases contribute to the transport of species towards and away from the solid-liquid interfaces. We present detailed simulations of flow dynamics and mass transfer in dense suspensions with explicit resolution of the solid-liquid interfaces. Challenges we face relate to the high Schmidt numbers usually associated with liquids which ask for dedicated numerical methods for sufficient resolution of the (fine) mass-transfer boundary layers, and to handling interactions between non-spherical particles in dense suspensions.

Jos Derksen was born and educated in the Netherlands. He holds a PhD degree in Engineering Physics. Fluid mechanics and transport phenomena are the research themes of JD's academic career. In terms of discipline there has been a gradual drift towards chemical engineering with applications in multiphase flow and chemical reactor engineering by means of mesoscopic and molecular simulation methods. This has brought him to various places, with faculty positions at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), the University of Alberta (Canada), and currently the University of Aberdeen (UK).