Film packed beds

Strandberg G.W., Donaldson, T.L., Farr, L.L. (1989) Degradation of trichloroethylene and trans-1,2-dichloroethylene by a methan-otrophic consortium in a fixed-film, packed-bed bioreactor. Environ. Sci. Technol. 23, 1422-1425. 

External Fluid Film Resistance. A particle immersed ia a fluid is always surrounded by a laminar fluid film or boundary layer through which an adsorbiag or desorbiag molecule must diffuse. The thickness of this layer, and therefore the mass transfer resistance, depends on the hydrodynamic conditions. Mass transfer ia packed beds and other common contacting devices has been widely studied. The rate data are normally expressed ia terms of a simple linear rate expression of the form... 

In either equation, /c is given by Eq. (16-84) for parallel pore and surface diffusion or by Eq. (16-85) for a bidispersed particle. For nearly linear isotherms (0.7 < R < 1.5), the same linear addition of resistance can be used as a good approximation to predict the adsorption behavior of packed beds, since solutions for all mechanisms are nearly identical. With a highly favorable isotherm (R 0), however, the rate at each point is controlled by the resistance that is locally greater, and the principle of additivity of resistances breaks down. For approximate calculations with intermediate values of R, an overall transport parameter for use with the LDF approximation can be calculated from the following relationship for sohd diffusion and film resistance in series... 

Usually they are employed as porous pellets in a packed bed. Some exceptions are platinum for the oxidation of ammonia, which is in the form of several layers of fine-mesh wire gauze, and catalysts deposited on membranes. Pore surfaces can be several hundred mVg and pore diameters of the order of 100 A. The entire structure may be or catalytic material (silica or alumina, for instance, sometimes exert catalytic properties) or an active ingredient may be deposited on a porous refractory carrier as a thin film. In such cases the mass of expensive catalytic material, such as Pt or Pd, may be only a fraction of 1 percent. 

Packed-Bed Fixed-Film Systems These systems were originaUy termed anaerobic trickhng filters because the first systems were submerged columns filled with stones run under anaerobic conditions (Fig. 25-57). A wide variety of packed media is now used ranging in size from graniiles 40 mesh to 7.5-cm (3—in) stones. Many systems use open structure plastic packing similar to that used in aerobic trickhng filters. 

Membrane reactors are defined here based on their membrane function and catalytic activity in a structured way, predominantly following Sanchez and Tsotsis [2]. The acronym used to define the type of membrane reactor applied at the reactor level can be set up as shown in Figure 10.4. The membrane reactor is abbreviated as MR and is placed at the end of the acronym. Because the word membrane suggests that it is permselective, an N is included in the acronym in case it is nonpermselective. When the membrane is inherently catalytically active, or a thin catalytic film is deposited on top of the membrane, a C (catalytic) is included. When catalytic activity is present besides the membrane, additional letters can be included to indicate the appearance of the catalyst, for example, packed bed (PB) or fluidized bed (FB). In the case of an inert and nonpermselective... 

There have been many studies of the effect of boundary films on mass and heat transfer to single pellets and in packed beds, including the work of Ranz and Marshall 27 and Dwivedi and Upadhey(28). Other theories of mass and heat transfer are discussed in Volume 1, Chapter 10, although only the steady-state film-theory is considered here. It is assumed that the difference in concentration and temperature between the bulk fluid and the external surface of a pellet is confined to a narrow laminar boundary-layer in which the possibility of accumulation of adsorbate or of heat is neglected. 

Equation 6.28 [8] can correlate well the data of many investigators for gas or liquid film mass transfer in packed beds for the ranges of (Re) from 10 to 2500, and of (Sc) from 1 to 10 000. 

McGreavy and THORNTON(23) have developed an alternative approach to the problem of identifying such regions of unique and multiple solutions in packed bed reactors. Recognising that the resistance to heat transfer is probably due to a thin gas film surrounding the particle, but that the resistance to mass transfer is within the porous solid, they solved the mass and heat balance equations for a pellet with modified boundary conditions. Thus the heat balance for the pellet represented by equation 3.24 was replaced by ... 

Due to the fact that protein adsorption in fluidized beds is accomplished by binding of macromolecules to the internal surface of porous particles, the primary mass transport limitations found in packed beds of porous matrices remain valid. Protein transport takes place from the bulk fluid to the outer adsorbent surface commonly described by a film diffusion model, and within the pores to the internal surface known as pore diffusion. The diffusion coefficient D of proteins may be estimated by the semi-empirical correlation of Poison [65] from the absolute temperature T, the solution viscosity rj, and the molecular weight of the protein MA as denoted in Eq. (16). 

Developing correlations to describe mass transfer in rotating packed beds has proven to be a challenge. Penetration theory (31), film-flow theory (32), and modified surface-renewal theory (12) are some examples of leveraging previous work... 

Basic A, Dudukovic MP. Liquid holdup in rotating packed beds examination of the film flow assumption. AIChE J 1995 41(2) 301-316. 

Fig. 15.25. Schematic for a laboratory-scale packed-bed electrode, a, Bed of particles b, current collector c, Luggin capillary d, thermometer e, purging gas in f, gas out g, bubbler h, gas collector i, Luggin capillary j, reference electrode k, Nation film I, counter-electrode m, septum for gas analysis and n, solution flow-in or flow-out. (Reprinted from J, O M. Bockris and J. Kim, J. Appl. Electrochem. 27 625, copyright 1997.)...

The mass transfer efficiency of the falling-film microreactor and the microbubble column was compared quantitatively according to the literature reports on conventional packed columns (see Table 4.3) [318]. The process conditions were chosen as similar as possible for the different devices. The conversion of the packed columns was 87-93% the microdevices had conversions of 45-100%. Furthermore, the space-time yield was compared. Flere, the microdevices resulted in larger values by orders of magnitude. The best results for falling-film microreactors and the microbubble columns were 84 and 816 mol/(m3 s), respectively, and are higher than conventional packed-bed reactors by about 0.8 mol/(m3 s). 

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