TWO-PHASE PRESSURE DROP IN A TRICKLE BED REACTOR INVOLVING NEWTONIAN/NON-NEWTONIAN LIQUID PHASE

Pressure drop is an important parameter in the process design and performance of trickle bed reactors as it affects the energy requirements and hence the operating cost and sizing of the reactor. Various hydrodynamic factors that influence the two-phase pressure drop of a trickle bed reactor when Newtonian liquid phases are involved include gas flow rate, liquid flow rate, surface tension of the liquid phase, viscosity of the liquid phase, and bed characteristics such as porosity and sphericity of the packing material. For viscoinelastic fluid flow consistency index K and flow behavior index n are observed to affect the pressure drop significantly, whereas, for viscoelastic fluids, fluid elasticity leads to higher pressure drop. In the present study the effects of various parameters (involving bed characteristics and liquid-phase properties ranging from simple water-like Newtonian fluids to complex viscoelastic non-Newtonian fluids) on two-phase pressure drop are investigated. A wide range of correlations...