Hydrodynamics of gas-solid two-phase mixtures flowing upward through packed beds

The work reported here represents part of an effort to address the challenges related to a newly proposed process for hydrogen production through steam-methane reforming, in which a fine adsorbent carried by the gaseous reactants moves through a packed catalyst bed. Comprehensive experimental work was carried out on the hydrodynamic aspects of gas-solid two-phase mixtures flowing upwards through packed beds. The effects of column diameter, packed particle size, and suspended particle size on the pressure drop and solids hold-ups were investigated. It was observed that the pressure drop of gas-solid two-phase flows depended approximately linearly on the solids flux under the conditions of this work, and the dependence was affected by the suspended particle size, packed particle size, packed column diameter, and gas velocity. However, when the data were reprocessed in terms of the Euler number and the solid-to-gas mass flux ratio, they collapsed into a single line for a given packing condition, and the suspended particle size was found to impose little effect. An analysis was conducted on the pressure drop using a modified version of Metha-Hawley equation by taking into account the effects of suspended particles on the viscosity and density. A reasonably good agreement with experimental data was obtained. The experimental results of the solids hold-ups showed that the particle concentration in packed particle interstices was much higher than that at the entrance to the packed column. Effort was also made to relate the solids hold-ups to the operating parameters. It was found that the dynamic hold-up related fairly well to the solid-to-gas velocity ratio as well as the suspended-to-packed particle size ratio for a given packed column, whereas no clear relationship was obtained for the static solids hold-up. Based on the results of this study, recommendations for future work are given.