Wall-to-liquid mass transfer in packed and fluidized beds with gas-liquid concurrent upflow.

Abstract

The wall-to-liquid mass transfer coefficient, kw, was measured for both surfaces of a coaxially immersed tube and a column wall in packed and fluidi/ed bed systems with gas-liquid concurrent upflow. Supplementary measurements of kw were carried out in openpipe liquid flow, gas-liquid two-phase upflow and packed and fluidized beds with single liquid flow. The value of kw in the three-phase fluidized bed increased with increasing gas flow rate, deviating from the value in the liquid-solid fluidized bed and approaching the value in the gas-liquid two-phase upflow, while it passed through a maximum value with respect to the liquid flow rate. The value of kw in the packed-bed operation increased with increasing liquid flow rate and with increasing gas flow rate. The values of kw for the inner tube and the column wall were shown to agree with each other. The values of kw in all the gas-liquid, liquid-solid and gas-liquid-solid systems examined were correlated well by a unified equation in terms of the energy dissipation rate per unit mass of liquid. An analogy existed between wall heat transfer and wall mass transfer in all the multiphase flow systems examined.