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Bubble Column Reactors.
Bubble Coiumn Reactors. By W.-D. Chichester, 1992. 533 pp., f110.00
DECKWER.
Wiley,
As any reactor design engineer knows, bubble columns are second only to fluidised beds in the difficulty of designing them. When I first set out to design industrial bubble &urn; reactors in the l%Os, there was very little help or guidance available. Levenspiel’s text, just published and already becoming established as the reactor designer’s Bible, was silent (an attitude shared almost universally by texts published since then). Armed only with a Cambridge degree and a working knowledge of German, I fell avidly on the steady trickle of papers from Khlbel, Siemes and others of the Berlin school which appeared from the mid-1950s onwards in CYrenr-lng.-Tech. The Germans have maintained a leading position in bubble column work since that time. it is, therefore, appro-
priate that this book from an eminent author of the German, school, which originally appeared in German in 1985, should be made available in translation for the wider Englishspeaking public. The standard of translation is ex&ilent, except for an occasional inappropriate technical term (the use of U rather than X as the symbol for fractional conversion is an annoying one) and the style is as readable as the teutonic thoroughness of the original will allow. After introductory chapters on the types of bubble column reactor and the reactions for which they are used, followed by a brief outline of the problems involved, Chaps 4-P cover the basic theory and experimental data involved in bubble column design: mass transfer with reaction (Chap. 4) and means of determining the regime and necessary parameters {Chap. 5); dispersion in the liquid and gas phases (Chap. 6); phase holdup, interfacial area, and mass transfer (Chap. 7); heat transfer {Chap. 8) and the hydrodynamics of
flow and “‘gulf stream” circulation (Chap. 9). Chapter 10 presents a synthesis of the material in mathematical models for bubble column reactors; this is a useful exercise, although the vast number of algebraic equations do not make for light reading, nor do they help the reader to spot wood for trees. This problem is admitted and addressed in Chap. 12, with some very useful guidelines and simplified suggestions for determining the influence of major design parameters, such as gas velocity, on overall conversion. Chapter 11 gives a very thorough summary of the specialised but important area of bubble columns with suspended solids. An important feature of the book is the very large number of references-the mass transfer chapter alone manages more than 200. It is unfortunate that the text itself was not rewritten for this English edition so as to incorporate material published since 1984, but at least a large selection of recent references, sorted by chapter but otherwise undigested, is provided as an appendix. These additional references also include titles of the papers (although titles from the German literature are not translated!) to give some idea of the subject matter. This is not a book for the beginner. but the engineer involved in bubble column design&d research workers in any field of bubble flow should tind it an invaluable compendium of both methods and experimental data, with a critical discussion of both. I certainly wish I had had something like it in the days when I woriced at the sharp end? JOHN H. HILLS Department of Chenibzl Engineering University of Nottingham university Park Nottingham NC7 2RD, U.K.
4221
DECKWER.
Wiley,
As any reactor design engineer knows, bubble columns are second only to fluidised beds in the difficulty of designing them. When I first set out to design industrial bubble &urn; reactors in the l%Os, there was very little help or guidance available. Levenspiel’s text, just published and already becoming established as the reactor designer’s Bible, was silent (an attitude shared almost universally by texts published since then). Armed only with a Cambridge degree and a working knowledge of German, I fell avidly on the steady trickle of papers from Khlbel, Siemes and others of the Berlin school which appeared from the mid-1950s onwards in CYrenr-lng.-Tech. The Germans have maintained a leading position in bubble column work since that time. it is, therefore, appro-
priate that this book from an eminent author of the German, school, which originally appeared in German in 1985, should be made available in translation for the wider Englishspeaking public. The standard of translation is ex&ilent, except for an occasional inappropriate technical term (the use of U rather than X as the symbol for fractional conversion is an annoying one) and the style is as readable as the teutonic thoroughness of the original will allow. After introductory chapters on the types of bubble column reactor and the reactions for which they are used, followed by a brief outline of the problems involved, Chaps 4-P cover the basic theory and experimental data involved in bubble column design: mass transfer with reaction (Chap. 4) and means of determining the regime and necessary parameters {Chap. 5); dispersion in the liquid and gas phases (Chap. 6); phase holdup, interfacial area, and mass transfer (Chap. 7); heat transfer {Chap. 8) and the hydrodynamics of
flow and “‘gulf stream” circulation (Chap. 9). Chapter 10 presents a synthesis of the material in mathematical models for bubble column reactors; this is a useful exercise, although the vast number of algebraic equations do not make for light reading, nor do they help the reader to spot wood for trees. This problem is admitted and addressed in Chap. 12, with some very useful guidelines and simplified suggestions for determining the influence of major design parameters, such as gas velocity, on overall conversion. Chapter 11 gives a very thorough summary of the specialised but important area of bubble columns with suspended solids. An important feature of the book is the very large number of references-the mass transfer chapter alone manages more than 200. It is unfortunate that the text itself was not rewritten for this English edition so as to incorporate material published since 1984, but at least a large selection of recent references, sorted by chapter but otherwise undigested, is provided as an appendix. These additional references also include titles of the papers (although titles from the German literature are not translated!) to give some idea of the subject matter. This is not a book for the beginner. but the engineer involved in bubble column design&d research workers in any field of bubble flow should tind it an invaluable compendium of both methods and experimental data, with a critical discussion of both. I certainly wish I had had something like it in the days when I woriced at the sharp end? JOHN H. HILLS Department of Chenibzl Engineering University of Nottingham university Park Nottingham NC7 2RD, U.K.
4221