Pressure Drop of Foaming Fluid Flow in Trickle Bed Reactors

Anthraquinone working solutions used in hydrogen peroxide manufacture were selected as the test system to investigate the properties of foaming fluid flow in the trickle bed reactor (TBR). By the analysis of the instantaneous pressure drop fluctuation a method was established to identify the flow patterns in TBR for foaming systems and used to investigate the effects of the factors such as gas and liquid flow rate, and packing particle size on the bed pressure gradient. The experimental data were correlated based on the empirical relationship reported by Specchia et al. Comparison between experimental data and estimation show that the regressed relationship of Specchia et al. can be used to predict the pressure gradient of foaming fluid flow in TBR with an accuracy of 5%.