Energetic Analysis of the Liquid-to-Wall Mass Transfer in a Trickle Bed Reactor

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the liquid/solid mass transfer at the wall of a trickle bed reactor operating in the high interaction regimes (pulsing and dispersed flow). The influence of Schmidt number was mainly investigated. The experimental results were interpreted using energy dissipation in terms of Kolmogoroff numbers. It was shown that the wall-to-liquid mass transfer coefficient can be correctly predicted by the following correlations: (i) in pulsing flow: ShØSc −1/3 m = 0.25( Ko ) 0.25 (ii) in dispersed flow: ShØSc −1/3 = 0.41( Ko ) 0.23