Liquid Holdup in a Pilot‐Scale Turbulent Contact Absorber – An Experimental and Comparative Study

Abstract

AbstractLiquid holdup in a turbulent contact absorber was determined experimentally. Experiments were performed in a 44.7 cm diameter Perspex column. Hollow spherical high‐density polyethylene balls were used as packing. The effect of liquid and gas velocities, static bed height, diameter and density of packing on liquid holdup was investigated for the range of gas velocities greater than minimum fluidization velocities. Also, the effect of gas and liquid distributors on liquid holdup was studied. Correlations for liquid holdup were developed and compared with those in the literature. It was observed that liquid holdup increased with the increase in liquid velocity, packing density, and the decrease in static bed height. Liquid holdup also increased with gas velocity when the gas distributor section was included, while no effect was observed for the bed. Lack of information on the contribution of liquid and gas distributors seems to be the logical explanation for the wide variation in data reported in the literature.