Rigorous Two-Fluid and Three-Fluid Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange Models and Their Application

Abstract

Rigorous and accurate simulation of Liquid Phase Catalytic Exchange (LPCE) is required for water detritiation process design and analysis. The Two-Fluid model simulates exchange between gas and liquid using an overall mass transfer coefficient model. The Three-Fluid model simulates liquid/vapor and vapor/gas mass transfer explicitly with separate mass transfer coefficients. Both Two-Fluid and Three-Fluid models are presented. The Two-Fluid model combines liquid and vapor flow, resulting in accuracy close to the more rigorous Three-Fluid model. Mass transfer coefficients are estimated from Maxwell-Stefan theory of multicomponent diffusion across films at the liquid/vapor and catalyst interfaces.

Keywords:

• Tritium
• liquid phase catalytic exchange
• mass transfer model