CORRELATION BETWEEN HYSTERESIS OF GAS-LIQUID MASS TRANSFER AND LIQUID DISTRIBUTION IN A TRICKLE BED

The hysteresis of gas-liquid mass transfer rate and the corresponding radial liquiddistribution in a trickle bed reactor are measured to provide evidence for the correlation between thesetwo behaviors.Experimental results indicate that the hysteresis of gas-liquid mass transfer originatesfrom the nonuniformity of the hydrodynamic state of gas-liquid flow and the radial maldistributionof local kcorresponds very well to the radial maldistribution of liquid flow in the bed.The localliquid flow rate is also found to be nonuniform in the azimuthal direction.In view of maldistributedliquid flow even in the pulsing flow regime,the conventional plug flow model seems oversimplifiedfor describing the behavior of a trickle bed.