Experimental studies of liquid flow maldistribution in a random packed column

Liquid flow distribution has been a major concern when scaling up random pa cked columns. This study concerns the measurements of liquid flow distribut ion in a large scale column packed with 25.4 mm stainless steel Pall rings. The liquid flow distribution was studied with packed bed height from 0.9 t o 3.5 m, liquid flow rate from 2.91 to 6.66 kg/m(2).s, and gas flow rate fr om 0 to 3.0 kg/m(2).s. In addition, three systems, water/air, aqueous deter gent solution/air and Isopar/air, were used to study the effect of liquid p hysical properties on liquid flow distribution, and two different liquid di stributors were employed to test the effect of liquid distributor design. I t was found that liquid flow distribution was strongly influenced by liquid distributor design, packed bed height, gas flow rate and liquid viscosity, slightly influenced by liquid flow rate, but not by liquid surface tension .