| Abstract
| - Three very different techniques for measuring the catalyst wetted fractionor wetting efficiencyin tricklebed reactors have been carried out and compared. The first one based on pressure drop data performedsuccessively in single gas then liquid phases and, then, in a gas−liquid phase is experimentally very simplebut did not result in meaningful wetting efficiency estimation. The other ones, based on RTD analysis and ondye adsorption on wetted surfaces, gave similar results and were used to investigate different parameters: liquid velocity and gas molecular weight and pressure by RTD, liquid−solid interaction or affinity (contactangle) and particle shape and diameter by dye fixation. The main operating parameter is the liquid velocitywhile the effect of gas flow is very weak. Higher solid−liquid affinity (heptane versus water) improveswetting efficiency only at very low liquid velocity (<2 × 10-3 m/s).
|
