A general pressure drop model based on liquid holdup of gas–liquid flow in micro-packed beds

• Published in: Chinese journal of chemical engineering Vol. 76; no. 12; pp. 147 - 156
• Main Authors: Wang, Junjie, Sheng, Lin, Deng, Jiang, Luo, Guangsheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.12.2024; The State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering,Department of Chemical Engineering,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China
• Subjects: Gas-liquid flow; Liquid holdup; Mathematical model; Micro-packed bed reactors; Pressure drop; Micro-packed bed reactors; Mathematical model; Liquid holdup; Pressure drop; Gas-liquid flow
• ISSN: 1004-9541
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2024.07.022

The understanding of the gas−liquid flow characteristics in a micro-packed bed reactor is still immature, especially for many gas−organic working systems commonly used in industry. Accordingly, this study proposes a platform to investigate the gas–liquid flow characteristics in a micro-packed bed reactor and presents a unified expression for these characteristics of both organic and aqueous liquid phase. The influence of two-phase flow rate, working solution viscosity, and packing particle size on the liquid holdup and pressure drop were studied. The gas-organic working systems results show that the liquid holdup ranges between 0.5 and 0.8 and pressure drop ranges from 50 to 350 kPa·m–1. In particular, a strong correlation between the two flow characteristics parameters (liquid holdup and pressure drop) was proposed for the first time. Finally, a general pressure drop mathematical prediction model in micro-packed bed were developed.