Flow Through Packed Beds of Solids

Instructor: Dr. Mohammad Al-Harahsheh

Department of Chemical Engineering
Jordan University of Science and Technology
 Introduction
There are numerous physical processes of interest to chemical engineers that involve the flow of fluids
through porous solids or beds of particles. Some examples include:

Oil and Gas Production - oil and gas deposits usually occur in porous structures such as
sands, sandstones, limestones, and dolomites. To be recovered, the oil or gas must flow through
these porous structures to a well hole. In the later stages of reservoir production, the oil or gas
must often be displaced from the porous solid by water or miscible solvents.

Hydrology - underground water sources usually occur in stratified layers of sand called
aquifers. The recovery of water for drinking or irrigation, the movement of trace pollutants into
aquifers, salt water encroachment into the fresh water aquifers, and the dissolution of underground
structures such as salt domes are some of the problems in hydrology dealing with flow through
porous materials.

Biophysics - the flow of blood and gases in the lung, and the flow of blood in the kidney are
examples of life processes involving flow in porous structures.

Filtration - solids can be separated from a suspension by a porous medium that retains the
solids but allows the liquid to pass. Examples include water treatment by sand beds and the
recovery of solid products by various types of filters.
 Introduction
Reactor Engineering - a common type of chemical reactor consists of a fixed bed of solid
catalyst particles through which the reactants and the products flow. In some cases the bed of
particles moves slowly countercurrent to the reacting stream. Reactors of the latter type are
called moving bed reactors.

Packed Columns - in operations involving the transfer of components from one phase to a
second phase, it is advantageous to have a large interfacial area for the transfer process. This
is often achieved by contacting the phases in a column filled with solid particles. An example
is a packed column for the absorption of gases that flow upward through the packing (solid
particles), into a liquid that flows downward over the packing. Other examples include
packed columns for distillation, drying of gases by silica gel or molecular sieves,
chromatography, and ion exchange.

Fluidized Beds - if a gas flow upward through a bed of particles with sufficiently high
velocity, the drag force on the particles balances the gravitational force on the particles and
the bed expands into a well-mixed, fluid-like phase. Industrial applications of fluidized beds
include catalytic cracking of heavy crude oil fractions, ore roasting, extraction of oil from
shale and bituminous sand, and combustion.
 Packed Towers for Absorption and Distillation
Used for continuous countercurrent
contacting of gas and liquid in absorption
as well as vapor-liquid contacting in
distillation.

Consist of:
1. Cylindrical column
2. Distributing space at the bottom
3. Distributing device at the top
4. Gas outlet at the top
5. Liquid outlet at the bottom
6. Packing material
Operation:

Gas enters the distributing space at the bottom below the

packed section and rises upward to contact the
descending liquid
Why packing? To provide large area of intimate contact between liquid and gas

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-4
 Clean gas out
Packed Towers

Mist Eliminator

Liquid Sprays

Packing

Dirty gas in

Liquid outlet

Chapter 3-5
JUST Department of Chemical Engineering
ChE 362 Unit Operations
 Industrial Applications

Fixed bed catalytic reactors

Absorption

Distillation

Adsorption

Filtration

Packed Bed Scrubber Flash video

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-6
 Darcys Law and Permeability
Experimental work (1830)

1 Vo
Q
Vo , Vo P A
L
Darcys law:

Vo k
P (1)
L

k: a constant, depends on the physical

properties of bed and fluid.

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-7
 Linear relation between the velocity and the pressure drop laminar flow

the resistance to flow arises mainly from viscous drag:

P = B P
(1) V o k (2)
L L

: the viscosity of the fluid

B: the permeability coefficient for the bed indication of the ease of passing
a fluid through a bed of particles.

If: Vo cm/s
cm2 .cp
cp B
(2)
Darcy
P atm s.atm
L cm

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-8
 The Channel Model
The most common methods of calculating the pressure drop through a
packed bed are based on estimates of the total drag on the boundaries of the
tortuous channels through the bed.

The actual channels are irregular in shape, have a variable cross section and
orientation, and are highly interconnected.

To calculate an equivalent channel diameter (Deq), it assumed that the bed

has a set of uniform circular channels whose total surface area and void
volume match those of the bed.

Deq

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-9
 Tortuosity:
Tortuosity is a measure of how
much a pathway deviates from a
straight line.

The path that fluid takes through a granular

material is governed by how individual pore
spaces are connected.
The greater the tortuosity the lower the
permeability because viscous
resistance is cumulative along the
length of the pathway.
 Geometric Relations
1. Sphericity, s:

D2p / 16 D3p 6 / Dp
s (3)
sp / v p sp / v p

2. Specific surface of a particle, av:

(surface of a particle) ? (total surface of particles in bed)

sp
av = =
vp (volume of a particle) (volume of particles)

(3) 6 (4)

av
s Dp

For a spherical particle (s=1):

6
av (5)
Dp

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-11
 3. Voidage,
volume of voids cross sectional area of voids
=
total volume of particles and voids cross sectional area of bed

4. Total surface area in bed/total volume in bed, a:

total surface area of particles

a =
total volume of bed
total surface area of particles volume of particles
= total volume of bed
volume of particles

a av 1 (6)

6
(4) into (6): a 1 (7)
s D p
Dp s D p
eff

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-12
 5. Hydraulic radius, rH

Flow through noncircular conduits:

Empirically, it is found that f vs. Re correlations for circular conduits

matches the data for noncircular conduits if D is replaced with equivalent
hydraulic diameter DH.
cross-sectional area available for flow DH
rH
wetted perimeter 4

DH D
For the special case of circular duct:

cross-sectional area available for flow D 2 / 4 D

rH
wetted perimeter D 4

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 3-13
 6. Equivalent channel diameter, Deq

cross-sectional area available for flow voide volume available for flow
rH
wetted perimeter total wetted surface of solids

volume of voids/volume of bed

(8)
wetted surface/volume of bed a
6
s D p
(7)
a 1
s D p
rH (9)
6 1 Deq

For the special case of circular channel:

(9)
cross-sectional area available for flow Deq / 4 Deq
2

rH Deq 4rH
wetted perimeter Deq 4

2
Deq s D p (10)
3 1
JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-14
 7. Average velocity in the channel, V

Q
V V
cross sectional area of voids

V : average interstitial (local) velocity Deq

Q
Vo
cross sectional area of entire bed
Vo : superficial or empty-tower velocity

cross sectional area of voids

V o V V
cross sectional area of entire bed

Vo
V (11)

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-15
 Laminar Flow
From Fluid Mechanics and for laminar flow in circular and straight pipes:

P 32 V ?

L D2

?
What are the proper velocity and diameter to account for the fact that
channels are tortuous and not straight and parallel ?

Deq

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-17
 Laminar Flow
P 32 V V
Vo

(11)
L D2

2 (10)
Deq s D p
3 1

72Vo 1
2
P A correction factor 1 is added to account for
the tortuous path through the bed
L s2D2p3

P 150Vo 1
2
P 721Vo 1 1 2.1 experiment
2
(12)
L s2D2p3
L s2D2p3
Vo DP
Re P 1
Kozeny-Carman Equation
1

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-18
 Turbulent Flow
From Fluid Mechanics and for turbulent flow in circular and straight pipes:

P 2 f V 2 V
Vo (11) f : friction factor

L D
2
Deq s D p (10)
3 1

Vo 3 1 3 f 2 Vo2 1
2
P 2 is added to account for the
2 f tortuous path through the bed
L
2 D
s p D
s p 3

P 1.75Vo2 1
(13) Burke-Plummer Equation
L s Dp 3 Vo DP
Re P 1000
1

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-19
 Ergun Equation (The entire range of flow rates)

P 150Vo 1 1.75Vo2 1 P
2
(14) k V
1 o k V
2 o
2

s Dp 3 L
L s Dp
2 2 3

? ?

Valid for spheres, cylinders, and granular packings (: 0.3 0.6)

1 Dp/Dt for spheres for cylinders

D p Ds
xi Dp 0
n 0.34 0.34

i 1 i
0.1 0.38 0.35
0.2 0.42 0.39
0.3 0.46 0.45
0.4 0.50 0.53
Dt: tower or bed diameter 0.5 0.55 0.60

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-20
 Example 1:
A packed tower is composed of cylinders having a diameter D = 0.02 m and a
length h = D. b = 962 kg/m3 p = 1600 kg/m3

Calculate: , Dpeff, a

Solution:
b p (1 ) 0.399
6 6
Dp s D p and a v Dp
eff s Dp eff av
D2
s p 2 4 Dh h D 6 6 6
av =
av Dp D 0.02 m
vp D2 D eff av 6 / D
h
4
6 m2
a 1 180.3 3
Dp m
eff

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-21
 Example 2:

Calculate P
Spherical particles
Dt = 0.61 m DP = 12.7 mm
Solution: L = 2.44 m
= 0.38

P 150Vo 1 1.75Vo2 1
2

L s Dp
2 2 3
s Dp 3 m 0.358 kg/s
Air
( = 1.221 kg/m3 , = 1.910-5 Pa.s)
Dt2
m 0.358 kg/s = AcV o V o V o 1 m/s
4
P
124.2 1913.99 P 0.0497 105 Pa
L
? ? Re=816.14

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-22
 Example
A gas absorption tower of diameter (2 m) contains ceramic Raschig rings
randomly packed to a height of 5 m. Air containing a small proportion of
sulphur dioxide passes upwards through the absorption tower at a flow
rate of (6 m3/s). The viscosity and density of the gas may be taken as
1.80 x 10-5 Pa.s and 1.2 kg/m3 respectively. Details of the packing are:
Ceramic Raschig rings, Surface area per unit volume of packed bed, a =
190 m2/m3,Voidage of randomly packed bed = 0.71
1. Calculate the diameter, Dsv, of a sphere with the same surface-volume
ratio as the Raschig rings.
2. Calculate the frictional pressure drop across the packing in the tower.
3. Discuss how this pressure drop will vary with flow rate of the gas within
10% of the quoted flow rate.
4. Discuss how the pressure drop across the packing would vary with gas
pressure and temperature.

JUST Department of Chemical Engineering ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-23
Packings
Classes of packings: Raschig Lessing ring
rings
Broken solids: cheapest; size
from10-100 mm to the size of
column
Shaped packings: better liquid
flow and higher effective
surface
Berl saddle
Grids: easy to fabricate; used Pall ring
in cooling towers
Structured packings:
High efficiency
But of High cost
Packing should be non
porous to prevent crystal
formation in the pores Pall ring
Nutter ring
when packing dries
Packings
Grids and structured packings

Grids
Structured packing