Experimental and CFD Simulation Study of a Trickle Bed with Foaming Liquid at Different Concentrations

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to experimentally and numerically investigate the effect of liquid and gas velocities of foaming liquid solutions with varying liquid surface tension on pressure drop and dynamic liquid saturation in a trickle bed. Experiments were carried out on a 10 cm diameter cylindrical plexiglas column, packed with glass beads of 4 mm with a height of 128 cm. Water and Sodium Lauryl Sulphate solutions in water at different concentrations (15 ppm, 30 ppm, 45 ppm and 60 ppm) were used as the liquid phase. CFD simulations were carried out on the system by using two-dimensional Eulerian two phase porous media model. Experimental and simulation results indicate higher pressure drop with higher superficial liquid and gas velocities, lower surface tension of the liquid, the dynamic liquid saturation increase with increase in liquid velocity, decrease with increase in gas velocity and decrease with decrease in surface tension. These general hydrodynamic behaviours are quantified with foaming liquids as the liquid phase. A fairly good agreement between the experimental and CFD simulation values and those predicted from literature correlations were observed.