Gas Holdup in a Three Phase Fluidized Bed with Cylinderical Particles

Abstract

The gas holdup characteristics in a cocurrent three-phase fluidized bed with liquid as continuous phase and gas as the discontinuous phase have been studied. Air, water and ceramic raschig rings are used as the gas, liquid and solid phases respectively. The experiments were carried out in a 0.1 m internal diameter, 1.88 m height vertical Plexiglas column. The results indicate that gas holdup increases with increasing gas velocity and decreasing liquid velocity. From the correlation developed for gas holdup it is found that gas holdup is a strong function of modified gas Reynolds number and a weak function of the liquid Reynolds number. The experimental values have been compared with those calculated from the developed correlation and have been found to agree well.