EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE PRESSURE DROP AND FLOODING IN A ROTATING PACKED BED REACTOR

Abstract

In conventional packed beds, mass transfer and flooding limitations lower the productivity of many processes. The almost zero sensitivity to variations in gravitational force has made centrifugal processes to have great potential for enhancing heterogeneous catalytic reactions. We studied a rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor as a gas/liquid contactor for multi-phase catalytic reactions. The scarcity of fundamental data on the hydrodynamics and mass transfer of the reactor limits the design, scale-up, and retrofitting of RPB reactors. Hence, we focused on the hydrodynamic behavior of the device. Previous studies on RPB reactor flooding and operating limits dwelled on visual observations and pressure drop variations only. However, physical visualizations are subjective because RPB reactor pressure drop variations are too inconsistent to be used to determine the upper operating limit during their operations. A robust quantitative method of obtaining RPB reactor flooding limits based on the flow rate of the ejected liquid, supported by visual observation and pressure drop measurement, was presented. The aim was to identify, with greater certainty, RPB reactor hydrodynamic characteristics and provide a more standard method of identifying it. The average increase in single-phase pressure drop per unit increase in rotation speed in the range investigated was 0.75Pa/rpm, and the average increase in pressure drop per unit increase in gas flow rate was 4.11Pa/Nm3h-1 within the operating range investigated.