Characterization of Hydrodynamic Properties of a Gas-Liquid-Solid Three-phase Fluidized Bed with Regular Shape Spherical Glass Bead Particles

Abstract

The hydrodynamic characteristics viz. the pressure drop, bed expansion and phase holdup of a co-current three-phase fluidized bed with an antenna type air sparger have been studied using liquid as the continuous phase and gas as the discontinuous phase. Air, water and glass beads are used as the gas, liquid and solid phases respectively. The experiments have been carried out in a 0.1 m internal diameter, 1.88 m height vertical Perspex column. Bed pressure measurements have been made to predict the minimum liquid fluidization velocity. Experimental study based on factorial design analysis has been made to investigate the expansion ratio of fluidized bed and a correlation has been developed for gas holdup. The developed correlation for bed expansion can be used for the sizing of such systems. The gas holdup is a strong function of the modified gas Reynolds number and a weak function of the liquid Reynolds number. The experimental values have been compared with those predicted by the correlations and have been found to agree well.