【Frontiers of HaiChuan Technology】New Advances by the Shanghai Advanced Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Use of Multiscale Bubbles to Enhance Multiphase Reaction Processes in Energy Applications

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New method for enhancing energy multiphase reaction processes January 13, 2025 According to Sinochem News, recently, the team led by Tang Zhiyong from the Shanghai Advanced Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences made new progress in the use of multi-scale bubbles to enhance energy multiphase reaction processes. The relevant results were published in the Journal of Chemical Engineering. 　　Gas-liquid systems are widely used in carbon capture technologies in the energy and environmental sectors, such as carbon dioxide capture, olefin hydroformylation, hydrogenation, and other processes. Bubbles, due to their complex mesoscale properties such as deformation, movement, coalescence, and breakup, directly influence multiphase mixing, mass transfer at phase interfaces, and the final reaction rate. Multiscale bubble flow control helps to regulate the reaction conversion rate and selectivity, thereby enhancing economic and environmental benefits. 　　Building on a series of studies on AI-assisted enhancement of multi-scale bubble-based energy and chemical processes, the research team proposed a model in which a variable-diameter distributor generates multi-scale bubbles to induce and regulate flow patterns and enhance reactions specifically. The researchers designed tapered distributors with two modes: strong aeration at the edge and strong aeration at the center. Through multiphase flow visualization experiments, they identified two mechanisms for flow pattern transition: bubble coalescence induction and distributor-induced effects, and established a multi-scale model for bubble coalescence and breakup that takes into account the effects of the distributor. The results show that gas distributors using central intense aeration exhibit higher upward velocities and shear rates, which can improve mixing and facilitate reactions limited by mass transfer; whereas distributors with edge intense aeration have lower shear effects and are more suitable for cell growth processes. 　　This study provides various preferred approaches for enhancing reaction processes subject to mass transfer limitations and shear limitations, offering new ideas and methods to improve the efficiency of multiphase energy chemical processes such as carbon dioxide capture, olefin hydroformylation, and oil hydrogenation.