Who you are?
Dr Chad BenningtonDr. Chad Bennington is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver and holds the NSERC/FPInnovations (Paprican) Industrial Research Chair in Chemical Pulping Technology.
Chad is also a member of a number of professional organizations, including APEGBC (Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia), NAMF (North American Mixing Forum),CSChE (Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering) and PAPTAC (the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada).
What are your current research interests?
My research interests are in chemical reaction engineering (including fluid and multiphase systems) applied to a wide range of pulp and paper unit operations. These include mixing and mass transfer in pulping and bleaching operations, reactor design for improved generation of bleaching chemicals, the mechanical aspects of recycling and deinking operations, and fluid flow in chip digesters. Work in these, and related areas, is carried out at the Pulp and Paper Centre and in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UBC.
What tomography system do you use and how long have you been using electrical tomography for your research?
I have an ITS p2000, which I began using in 2001. So I have been using Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) for 8 years now.
What do you the system for?
The multiphase systems found in pulp and paper process operations are opaque, and resist study by conventional means. ERT has allowed me to re-create process flows of interest in the laboratory and study them – thereby learning how to optimize the industrial processes.
What papers have you published on research using our system?
There have been a range of papers where the p2000 has contributed, primarily in looking at mixing and flow. The most recent papers are:
Ruzinsky, F. and C.P.J. Bennington, “Aspects of Liquor Flow in a Model Digester Measured using Electrical Resistance Tomography”, Chem. Eng. J. 130(2-3):67-74 (2007)
Lee, Q.F. and C.P.J. Bennington, “Investigation of Liquor Flow in a Model Kraft Batch Digester”, in press Chem. Eng. J. (in press September, 2008).
Hui, L., C.P.J. Bennington and G.A. Dumont, “Cavern Formation in Pulp Suspension using Side-entering Axial Flow Impellers”, (in press Chem. Eng. Sci., 64:509-519 (2009)
Tomographic image reconstruction showing movement of the lower conductivity tracer front from the upper left inlet through the vessel as a function of time (measured from the beginning of tracer injection). From left to right: images captured at t = 25, 40, 88, and 309 s following the step change in tracer concentration. The flow ratio is 1:1 with QT = QB = 12 L/min. The average local velocity is 9.3 mm/s based on the cross-sectional area of the digester (A = 0.062 m2) and the average void fraction in the bed (ε = 0.35)
What have you leaned about you process by using our instruments?
Most of my ERT applications are in the laboratory on scale-model processes. In the lab, I can manipulate process variables over a wider range and in a more controlled manner than could be achieved in a mill environment. The information is then taken to the mill and used on their processes. However, there are a number of in-mill applications that could be very valuable, and I have recently installed a sensor system in a local pulp mill to investigate liquid mixing into pulp suspensions. Other pulp and paper processes are amenable to ERT use, and I currently have four students (thus four different projects!) that will use ERT in part of their research.
What are the benefits in using our system?
Process ERT is still very much an art. However, the ability to see inside an opaque system is invaluable (when validated). I have used ERT studies to support process modelling, including CFD. As experience is gained with the system, and as technical improvements are made in data collection and image reconstruction, the system should become even more valuable.
Pourquoi s'inscrire?
