THE EFFECT OF PARTICLE DILUTION ON WETTING EFFICIENCY AND LIQUID FILM THICKNESS IN SMALL TRICKLE BEDS

Partial wetting in small scale trickle bed reactors results in incorrect determination of intra-particle apparent kinetic parameters as well as in erroneous reactor scale-up. Although a dilution of catalyst particles with inert fines improves the catalyst wetting efficiency, it does not guarantee full external catalyst wetting at all superficial liquid mass velocities. In this work, a method is presented to relate the wetting efficiency obtained at different operating conditions and at different laboratories for diluted and non-diluted beds. Liquid film thickness in diluted and non-diluted beds is estimated. The effect of the operating conditions on partial wetting and liquid film thickness is discussed.