Rcents Progrs en Gnie des Procds, Numro 98 - 2009

2-910239-72-1, Ed. SFGP, Paris, France

POWER CONSUMPTION AND MASS TRANSFER IN AN

UNBAFFLED STIRRED TANK FOR AUTOTHERMAL
THERMOPHILIC DIGESTION OF SLUDGE
HASSAN Raouf, LOUBIERE Karine1, LEGRAND Jack

GEPEA, UMR 6144, CNRS, Universit de Nantes/ENITIAA/EMN

CRTT, Boulevard de l'Universit, BP 406, 44602 Saint-Nazaire Cedex, France

Abstract
New strategies for the disposal and reuse of sewage sludge are developing to face their growing amount
while satisfying the new European directives. The most widely adopted process for stabilizing sludge
remains mesophilic anaerobic digestions. As enabling to respect stringent specifications regarding
pathogens, a migration to higher temperatures is requested. In this context, an interesting option is the
Autothermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion in which the biological reaction produces itself most of the
energy required to achieve thermophilic conditions. This is possible because of the high load of organic
matter to be degraded, but the counterpart is a great need of dissolved oxygen. The latter constraint makes
necessary tailored investigations for optimizing mixing and aeration in these complex reactors where
transfer phenomena and biological conversion kinetics are strongly coupled. This paper reports a
preliminary study carried out to characterize a benchscale ATAD reactor in terms of power consumption
and gas-liquid mass transfer. This digester was made of an unbaffled vessel equipped with four nozzle
spargers and a non-standard impeller (anchor-type paddle). Under ungassed conditions, the power number
curve was established and the constants that characterize the laminar and turbulent regimes determined. A
model describing the variation of NP over the whole range of Re was proposed. Under gassed conditions,
the gas-liquid regimes were visualized and the flow maps defined. The Relative Power Demands were
also quantified as a function of gas flow numbers. Overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients were
measured in water, with paying a special attention on the effect of mechanical agitation.
Keywords: ATAD reactor; gas-liquid flow; power consumption; mass transfer coefficient.

1- Introduction
The treatment and disposal of urban and industrial wastewater sludge is an expensive and
environmentally sensitive world-wide problem. Increasing environmental and legislative constraints for
sludge disposal have intensified the interest to develop sustainable and economical methods for sludge
reduction. In Europe, the Sewage Sludge Directive 86/278/EEC regulates the uses and properties of
stabilised sludge for being either recycled or disposed. The Auto-thermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion
(ATAD) is classified as a high temperature aerobic digestion process technology. It is a very suitable
alternative solution for implementing thermophilic conditions in sludge treatment. Contrary to the usual
ones, this process offers the advantage to provide simultaneously stabilization and disinfection thanks to
the temperatures involved (typically between 40C and 70C). If the amount of organic matter and the
oxygen supply are sufficient, no additional heat is required, leading thus to a self-heating operation. The
mass of sludge is commonly reduced to 35-50% and of Class A (Layden, 2007).
In a chemical engineering point of view, an ATAD reactor is a very complex process to model, as all the
following phenomena interact with others: multiphase system (air bubbles dispersed into a biological
liquid phase containing solid particles), presence of biological reactions and coupling between heat and
mass transfers. Moreover, sludge are non-Newtonian fluids: they present a shear-thinning behaviour with,
possibly, a yield point, thixotropicity and/or viscoelasticity (Seyssiecq et al., 2003). These rheological

1
Corresponding author. New affiliations: Universit de Toulouse, Laboratoire de Gnie Chimique (LGC), CNRS, INP, UPS. New
address : LGC, Site Basso-Cambo BP 1301, 5 rue Paulin Talabot, 31106 Toulouse France. E-mail : Karine.Loubiere@ensiacet.fr.
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2-910239-72-1, Ed. SFGP, Paris, France

properties depend on many parameters (total solid content, biological flocs, temperature, and particle
size) and are not reproducible (season, origin, pre-treatments, operating conditions). They strongly
influence hydrodynamics (mixing), heat transfer (operating temperature), gas-liquid mass transfer
(oxygen supply for microorganisms), and biological degradation. With regard to this complexity, tailored
investigations are required for optimising mixing and aeration and for better understanding the
phenomena involved and their coupling. A special attention should be paid on the relationship between
the gas-liquid mass transfer performances and the biological degradation (efficiency, thermophilic
temperature, autothermal conditions). For that, a lab-scale ATAD reactor has been initially designed at
the Rovira I Virgili University (Tarragona, Spain) aiming to studying the biological degradation kinetics
of sludge. It was made of an unbaffled vessel equipped with four nozzles and a non-standard impeller
(anchor-type paddle). In keeping with a larger scientific context (European program REMOVALS), the
paper is focused on some preliminary investigations carried out to characterise this original agitation
system in terms of power consumption and aeration performance.

2- Material and Methods

2.1 Experimental set-up
The lab-scale reactor consists of a 10 L unbaffled vessel, with a cylindrical and curved-bottomed shape,
made of PMMA and having a diameter (T) of 21.2 cm and a total height (HT) of 31.6 cm. It is equipped
with a square double jacket (27.2 27.2 cm2). Air is introduced inside the tank through four nozzles
(equally dispatched with an inner spacing of 12 cm). These spargers are made of stainless steel fibre mesh
and have a circular shape (1.4 cm in diameter). Air flow rate is regulated by four manometers (Samson
47 08-1155) and measured by using four volumetric flowmeters (Brooks R2-25-D), enabling thus the
same air flow rate in each nozzle to be imposed. The total air flow rate is ranged from 0.33 to 3.0 NL/min.
Agitation is provided with an impeller fixed on a shaft which rotation speed (N) is regulated by an
electrical motor (Ikavisc MR-D1 Messrhrer, Janke & Kunkel, Ika). The impeller has a non-standard
shape, looking like an anchor-type paddle, with a diameter (D) of 90 mm, a height of 50 mm, a width of
20 mm and a thickness of 3.0 mm. The vertical distance between the vessel bottom and the lower
horizontal plan of the impeller, called the impeller clearance (C), varies between T/3, T/4 and T/7. Water,
aqueous solutions of glycerine (30, 67, 85, 93 and 100% percent in weight) and viscous oil (Emkarox)
are used as liquid phases. Viscosities are measured by a rotational rheometer (PAAR Physica MCR500)
and the density by a hydrometer. The physical properties of the liquids are reported in Table 1.
Table 1. Physical properties of liquid phases at 20C.

Solution Viscosity () Density ()

(mPa s) (kg/m3)
Water 1.003 998
Glycerine (30%)(67%)(85%)(93%) (2.5)(17.7)(82.3)(253)(367) (1072)(1171)(1223)(1245)
pure 1410 1261
Emkarox oil 4900 1076

2.2 Power consumption measurements

The power consumption is deduced from measurements of the torque induced by the agitator in rotation.
The torquemeter used (IKAVISC MR-D1) has a sensitivity of 0.01 N.cm. In practice, the value of the
torque was variable due to the mechanical friction in the bearings; that is why, for more accuracy, the
maximum and the minimum values of the torques were systematically recorded for each experiment. The
power consumed by the impeller (P expressed in W) is calculated using the torques measured when the
impeller is submerged in the liquid (M) and when the impeller rotates in air (MO):
Ptorque = 2N (M M ) (1)

Under gassed conditions, the total power consumption is deduced from:

P = Ptorque + L gU GVL (2)
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2-910239-72-1, Ed. SFGP, Paris, France

where UG = QG/(T2/4) is the gas superficial velocity. These results are commonly presented by
correlating the dimensionless power number (Np = P/N3D5) with the Reynolds number (Re = ND2/).
Whatever the agitation system, the laminar regime occurs for Re < 10 and is characterised by:
N P .Re = K p (3)

For turbulent flows (i.e. when Re > Ret, with Ret 104 for radial impellers, Ret 105 for axial impellers;
Nagata, 1975), the power number becomes constant and is independent of liquid viscosity:
N p = N pt (4)

2.4 Gas-liquid mass transfer measurements

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up:

1: Valve; 2: Manometer; 3: Volumetric flowmeter; 4:
Spargers; 5: Impeller; 6: O2 and temperature probes; 7:
Cover; 8: Electrical motor; 9: Torquemeter; 10:
Transmitter; 11: Computer; 12: Double jacket

The standard dynamic gassing out method is used to measure the volumetric gas-liquid mass transfer
coefficient kLa. The dissolved oxygen concentrations are recorded as a function of time by using two
probes (InPro-6050, Mettler Toledo) and an acquisition card. The LabVIEW software is used for data
acquisition. The probes positions are represented in Figure 1 (vertically at 4 cm and 18 cm above the
bottom of the vessel, horizontally at 1.5 cm of the walls). Assuming that the liquid phase is well mixed,
the mass balance in the dissolved oxygen concentration is written:
dCO
2 = k L a C *O CO (5)
dt 2 2

kLa is deduced from the slope of ln(C*O2 CO2) versus time and corrected by taking into account the time
constants of probes ( 16 s). As T = 20 3C, a temperature correction is applied (Bewtra et al., 1970):
k L a20 = k L aT .1.024 (20T ) (6)
The mean kLa in the tank is an average of the values measured for each probe (three tests per condition).
The experiments are performed in water (HL = 21.2 cm, C = 5.3 cm), without and with mechanical
agitation (100, 200, and 300 rpm) and for air flow rates QG varying between 0.33 and 3 NL/min.

3- Results and discussion

3.1 Power consumption
In Figure 2-a, the progressive decrease of NP for increasing Re is reported. By fitting the experimental
data with the values predicted by either Eq. (3) (if Re < 10) or Eq. (4) (if Re > 104), the constants Kp and
Npt are firstly determined. As commonly used, the following correlations are also tested to model the
variation of the power numbers over the whole range of Reynolds numbers:
KP An + N pt Re (Nagata et al., 1957) (7)
Np = +
Re C n + Re

p
KP 1000+ 1.2 Re0.66
Np = + B. (Nagata, 1975) (8)
0.66
Re 1000+ 3.2 Re

From Table 2, it appears that the liquid height and the impeller level have no major effect on the models
constants, even if a slight increase and decrease of both laminar and turbulent constants can be
distinguished when increasing HL and C respectively. More important is that the present laminar constants
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2-910239-72-1, Ed. SFGP, Paris, France

are significantly smaller than the ones obtained for usual impellers: KP = 35 for Rushton turbine, 200-300
for anchor and 35-50 for propellers (Xuereb et al., 2006). The turbulent constants (0.2-0.3) have the same
order of magnitude than anchors or marine propellers, but they remain very small when compared to the
radial impellers commonly used for dispersing gas in agitated tanks (Roustan, 2005). For N = 370 rpm
(used by our Spanish partner for biological study), the associated tip speed (DN) and power consumed
are close to 1.7 m/s and 60 W/m3 respectively. According to literature (Paul et al., 2004), these values are
very low, suggesting thus that the dispersion of bubble plume by the present impeller would not be
sufficient for aerating efficiently the liquid medium. To confirm this, the aeration performances inside the
lab-scale reactor are investigated below.
RPD = PG/P
100 1.0
NP H = 21.2 cm , C = 7 cm
100 rpm
H = 21.2 cm , C = 3.2 cm
0.8 150 rpm
H = 15 cm , C = 7 cm
10 200 rpm
H = 15 cm , C = 3.2 cm
0.6 250 rpm
300 rpm
0.4
1

0.2

0 FlG
0.0
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Re

(a) (b)
Figure 2. (a) Power curve NP (Re) without gas, (b) Relative Power Demand, RPD, versus Gas Flow number.

The well-known equation for impeller power is often modified for gas-liquid systems to give:
P = N p ( RPD) .N 3.D 5 (9)
where RPD is the relative power demand or gassing factor (PG/P) which depends on the blade shape.
Figure 2-b illustrates, for the present system, the decrease of RPD with increased dimensionless gas rate
(or gas flow number FlG = QG/ND3). It can be noticed that RPD falls a little at high rotation speeds (RDP
> 0.9), whereas a significant decrease (from 0.8 to 0.4) is observed for N=100 rpm. This should be linked
to the fact that, for the smallest speeds, the bubbles are regrouped around the shaft, and tend to form some
gas cavities behind the blades (loading regime). Working at N > 300 rpm is thus recommended for
minimising the power loss under gassed conditions.
Table 2. Constants associated with the NP (Re) modelling.

HL d Nagata et al. (1957) [Eq. (7)] Nagata (1975) [Eq. (8)]

KP NPt
(cm) (cm) An Cn (%) B p *(%)
3 15.2 0.26 674.1 1184.2 11.2 0.55 1.32 13.1
15
7 14.1 0.22 756.8 1486.5 11.1 0.50 1.39 12.2
3 15.4 0.29 945.2 1545.5 10.3 0.60 1.24 11.4
21
7 14.6 0.30 897.2 1453.2 10.2 0.60 1.23 11.1
* The deviations between measurements and predicted values are calculated as =1/N. |(xmod-xexp)/xexp|*100

3.2 Overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients

Firstly, gas flow pattern is visualised to qualitatively appreciate the degree of recirculation and back
mixing of the gas phase. Depending on the rotation speed and gas flow rate, three dispersion regimes are
usually distinguished: (i) flooding, where the impeller is overwhelmed by gas and the mixing very poor
(ii) loading, where the impeller disperses the gas through the upper part of the tank; (iii) complete
dispersion, where the gas bubbles are distributed throughout the tank. The gas-liquid flow maps are
defined by using the Froude number (Fr = N2D/g) and the gas Flow number (FlG = QG/ND3). It can be
seen from Figure 3-c that, for most of experiments, the loading regime is observed; some zones free of
bubbles appear then at the bottom of the tank and close to the wall (Figure 3-a). For four experiments (at
N = 300 rpm), the complete dispersion of the gas phase is approximately reached; nevertheless, the areas
free of bubbles outside of the spargers, even restricted, still exist and the vortex is quite big. When
 Rcents Progrs en Gnie des Procds, Numro 98 - 2009
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compared to literature, the present flow numbers are rather small (FlG<0.04). It is mainly due to the small
gas flow rates tested, which have been imposed by some constraints own to the operation of the ATAD
reactor in presence of sludge (minimisation of evaporation and foam formation). The present flow map is
compared with several relationships developed in water in tanks with straight baffles and Rushton turbine
(Figure 3-c): Nienow et al. (1977) defined the maximum gas-holding for full recirculation,
Warmoeskerken et al. (1981) reported the minimum (Fr) for gas dispersion and Nienow et al. (1985)
determined the maximum gas flow rate before flooding the impeller. Even a slight shift exits, this
confirms that experiments are mainly in the loading regime

1,00
Nienow et al.(1977)
Fr 2
FlG=13.Fr (D/T)
5
Nienow et al.(1985)
3.5
FlG=30.Fr.(D/T)

0,10

Loading
Warmoeskerken et al. (1981) : Fr=0.045
Complete
dispersion

0,01
0,0001 0,0010 0,0100 FlG 0,1000 1,0000

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3. Photographs of the dispersion regime: (a) Loading regime (N = 200 rpm and QG = 2.3 NL/min), (b)
Complete dispersion (N = 300 rpm and QG = 3 NL/min), (c) Gas-liquid flow map.

To illustrate the effect of agitation on the gas liquid mass transfer, the variations of the mean volumetric
mass transfer coefficients with the air flow rates are shown in Figure 4-a (water). As expected, kLa
increases with increased gas flow rates and rotation speeds. This is mainly because, as the impeller speed
increases, gas dispersion and bubble break-up are favoured, enhancing thus the surface area available for
mass transfer. These results can be modelled according to the relationships usually available in literature,
where the variation of kLa is related, by means of a power law, either to N and QG, or to Fr and FlG, or to
(PG/V) and UG. As shown in Figure 4-b, the average deviations between experimental and predicted
values are below 10% whatever the conditions. When compared to the well-known correlation of Vant
Riet (1979), the exponent on UG is found identical (0.51 against 0.5), the exponent on PG/V is here twice
smaller (0.17 against 0.4) and the constant significantly higher (0.35 against 0.026).
0.008
0.009
-1 Predicted kLa (s-1) Correlation (N, Qg)
kLa (s ) +10 %
100 rpm Correlation (Fr ,Flg)
0.006 200 rpm Correlation (Pg, Ug)
300 rpm -10 %
0.006
without agitation
kLa = 0.41.N0.59QG0.51
0.004
0.05 0.51
kLa/N = 0.013.Fr FlG
0.003
V)
0.17 0.51
0.002 kLa = 0.35.(PG/ UG

-1
Experimental kLa (s )
QG (NL/min)
0.000
0.000
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 0.000 0.003 0.006 0.009
(a) (b)

Figure 4 (a) Gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient (mean value) versus air flow rate. (b) Experimental kLa compared
with predicted values by usual correlations

In order to test the axial homogeneity of oxygen mass transfer in the tank, the following criterion (h) is
used (Cabaret et al, 2008):
1 (10)
h= k a k L a bottom / k L a mean
n n L top
In this equation, n represents the number of experiments, in our study n = 15 (average over all the QG). It
is clear that h represents the mean deviation between kLa at the top and the bottom of the tank. For N =
 Rcents Progrs en Gnie des Procds, Numro 98 - 2009
2-910239-72-1, Ed. SFGP, Paris, France

100 rpm, the criterion h is equal to 4.6 %, for N = 200 rpm to 2.7 % and for N = 300 rpm 2.8 %. Rising
the rotation speeds enables thus to better homogenise the mass transfer.
At last, it is of importance to outline that the present values of kLa are insufficient. Indeed, the associated
oxygen transfer rates are ranged between 0.04 and 0.2 kgO2/m3/h, which would correspond (for the most
favourable conditions) to 0.1-0.7 m3 air/m3/h. The latter values are significantly low when compared to
the 4 m3air/m3/h theoretically required for ATAD process (EPA/625/10-90/007, 1990). It is evident that
the viscous and non-Newtonian properties of sludge will accentuate this tendency, i.e. will lead to worse
aeration performances than the present ones in water.
4- Conclusion
The objectives were to characterize a lab-scale ATAD reactor in terms of power consumption and
aeration performances. The curve relating the power number to the Reynolds number was determined and
modelled for the original agitation system involved (anchor-type paddle). The laminar and turbulent
constants were found equal to 10 and 0.2-0.3 respectively. They were very low when compared to the
impellers usually used for dispersing gas. The Relative Power Demand was also quantified as a function
of gas flow numbers, as well as the gas-liquid flow maps. The increase of impeller rotation speed allowed
both the volumetric mass transfer coefficient and the oxygen homogenization to be improved. All these
findings indicated that the aeration capacities of the present device were not sufficient (even in water) to
face the biological needs when the autothermal digestion of sludge operates. That is why the agitation
system is at present changed: a more standard gas-liquid system is chosen (four baffles, ring sparger,
concave blade turbine). In future works, the effect of rheology (i.e. the shear thinning behaviour
characteristic of sludge) on mass transfer performances will be studied in the new configuration.

Acknowledgements
The development of this work was made possible by the financial support of the Egyptian Ministry of
High Education. This work being a part of the European project REMOVALS, the authors would like to
acknowledge our partners for the Roviri I Virgili Universitat (Tarragona, Spain), Prof. C. Bengoa, Dr. E.
Torrens. The authors are also especially grateful for the technical support provided by J-C Jouin.

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