Gas Dynamic Tracer Technique for gas-solid, gas-liquid, and gas-liquid-solid systems
Gaseous tracer (GT) is an advanced technique used to properly measure the residence time distributions (RTDs) in complex multiphase flow reactors and systems. It is accounts properly for the extra dispersion encountered in different components of the experimental set-up such as plenum/distributor, sampling lines, analytical units, etc. Also, it offers a fast and reliable means of providing accurate on-line and quantitative analyses. The components of the developed GT technique are: the Thermal Conductivity Detector (TCD), the Flame Ionization Detector (FID),vacuum gas sampling pump, digital controller, signal amplifier, analog/digital (AD) converter, data acquisition (DAQ) software and computer, as shown in.
The principal method of GT working is based on the difference between the known thermal conductivities of the reference (or span) gas and sampling gas streams.GT technique designed as either a single or a dual pass unit for non-continuous sampling. The typical GT experiments are performed by injecting an inert chemical, called tracer, using impulse method into the inlet stream and then measuring this tracer concentration in the effluent stream as a function of time.The methodology, algorithms and programs has been developed and implemented in order to convolute the dispersion occurring in external components from the overall dispersion to extract properly the dispersion of the reactor alone.
