Effect of shaft eccentricity and impeller blade thickness on the vortices features in an unbaffled vessel

Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of a Pharmaceutical Full-Scale Hydrogenation Reactor

The pharmaceutical industry has been quite successful in developing new hydrogenation processes, and the chemistry of hydrogenation is currently well understood. However, it is a complex process to scale and optimize due to its high exothermicity, use of expensive catalysts and solvents, and its mass transfer requirements. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a CFD model to be able to describe the mass transfer, hydrodynamics, and mixing with respect to changes in rotational speed for a full-scale pharmaceutical hydrogenation reactor. In the first stage, a simple CFD model is used to predict the development of the surface vortex, and it is validated against literature data. In the second stage, the CFD model is tested on a full-scale configuration equipped with a Rushton turbine and a bottom kicker to study the formation of the surface vortex. Simulation results show the ability to predict the development of the surface vortex. These results are used to estimate the liquid height and mixing time as a function of several rotational speeds, allowing us to propose novel process correlations for this particular configuration. Although modelling the complete hydrogenation process would be challenging, this work is seen as a first step towards developing models that demonstrate the use of CFD at such large reactor scales.