AXIAL SEGREGATION OF MULTICOMPONENT SOLID PARTICLES SUSPENDED IN BUBBLE-COLUMNS

Multicomponent solid particles were suspended in vertical bubble columns of 7-cm diameter and 4.85-m height and 15-cm diameter and 2.7-m height. Axial changes in holdups of gas and solids in the column were determined by sectioning the column simultaneously with 20 horizontal plates for the 7-cm-diameter column and 11 such plates for the 15-cm-diameter column. Solid particles used were sieved glass beads (118, 243, and 465-mu-m) and mixtures thereof A one-dimensional sedimentation-dispersion model was applied to describe the axial holdup profile of each solid component. The parameters used in the model were all correlated with experimental equations based on the results of single-component systems. Calculated results were in agreement with experimental ones over an entire column consisting of dense and dilute regions.