Offshore floating packed bed reactors: Key challenges and potential solutions

The influence of floating vessel motions on the hydrodynamic behavior of multiphase flows in porous media was studied. For elucidating their effects, laboratory-scale experiments were carried out using a hexapod ship motion emulator with six-degree-of-freedom motions with an embarked packed column operating in the co-current gas-liquid down-flow mode. The response of gas-liquid distribution, pressure drop, liquid saturation, and flow regime transition to column inclinations and roll motions was monitored and compared to those of the corresponding static vertical and inclined configurations. On-line visualization of two-phase flow patterns in terms of local liquid saturation distribution is performed by means of a capacitance wire-mesh sensor positioned firmly on the floating packed bed. The results revealed that the hydrodynamic performance of packed beds under roll motion deviates strongly from that of the static beds, indicating that the known characteristics of the conventional land-based trickle-bed reactors cannot be transposed on a one-to-one basis for design and scale-up of the floating reactor configurations.