Effect of partial wetting on liquid/solid mass transfer in trickle bed reactors

Loïc Baussaron (1) , Carine Julcour-Lebigue (1) , Christophe Boyer , Anne-Marie Wilhelm (1) , Henri Delmas (1)

1 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique

The wetting efficiency of liquid trickle flow over a fixed bed reactor has been measured for a wide range of parameters including operating conditions, bed structure and physico-chemistry of liquid/solid phases. This data bank has been used to develop a new correlation for averaged wetting efficiency based on five different non-dimensional numbers. Finally liquid/solid mass transfer has been determined in partial wetting conditions to analyse what are the respective effects of wetting and liquid/gas flow turbulence. These effects appear to be separated: wetting being acting on liquid/solid interfacial area while the liquid/solid mass transfer coefficient is mainly connected to flow turbulence through the interstitial liquid velocity. A correlation has been proposed for liquid/solid mass transfer coefficient at very low liquid flow rate.

Mots clés: Multiphase reactors; Hydrodynamics; Trickle bed reactors; Trickle flow; Wetting efficiency; Mass transfer

Domaines: Génie chimique

Loïc Baussaron, Carine Julcour-Lebigue, Christophe Boyer, Anne-Marie Wilhelm, Henri Delmas. Effect of partial wetting on liquid/solid mass transfer in trickle bed reactors. Chemical Engineering Science, 2007, 62 (24), pp.7020-7025. ⟨10.1016/j.ces.2007.08.014⟩. ⟨hal-03594346⟩