Liquid holdup in the three-levels-of-porosity reactor

Liquid holdup was measured as function of gas and liquid mass flow in the t hree-levels-of-porosity (TLP) reactor. Packing material and bed height were varied. Because a TLP reactor contains layers of catalyst there is an addi tional bed holdup compared to conventional trickle-bed reactors. Liquid bed holdup is composed of two parts: below the capillary fill height the inter particle pores are completely filled with liquid, above this height the liq uid holdup is well described by literature relations for single-phase trick le-now. Using residence time measurements it was shown that no stagnant zon es for liquid flow existed in the tested TLP packings. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.