Cyclic operation strategies in inclined and moving packed beds—Potential marine applications for floating systems

Abstract

The hydrodynamics of a periodically operated packed bed subjected to column oscillations and obliquity was studied. Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and capacitance wire mesh sensors were employed to measure the local instantaneous liquid saturation in stationary slanted and moving packed beds, respectively. A swell simulator with six‐degree‐of‐freedom motions was applied to emulate the behavior of floating packed beds. The results revealed that column inclination from the vertical position considerably decayed liquid waves excited by different cyclic operation strategies. However, ON–OFF liquid and gas/liquid alternating cyclic operations showed an attempt to conserve wave identity in the slanted bed and to decrease phase maldistribution resulting from bed inclination. It was also found that symmetric and non‐symmetric split ratios of ON–OFF liquid cyclic mode were able to noticeably decrease fluid maldistribution in the oscillating packed bed. This study opens up possible prospects for process intensification of floating packed bed reactors and contactors. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 4157–4172, 2016