CFD Modeling of Two-phase Flow in Trickle-Bed Reactors

In this study, computational fluid dynamics used to investigate pressure drop and liquid holdup in high and low pressure trickle-bed reactors (TBR). CFD results are compared with experimental data from literature and found that CFD is a useful tool for hydrodynamics investigation of high pressure trickle bed reactors. It was shown that by increasing pressure in TBR, pressure drop increased and liquid holdup decreased. Finally it is observed that pressure drop is more sensitive to velocity changes than to the reactor pressure changes. This result is the same as several findings by experiments in the literature.

Keywords:

Trickle-Bed Reactor (TBR) , CFD , Pressure Drop , Liquid Holdup , Simulation