Capacitance wire mesh sensor and electrical capacitance tomography study of trickle-bed reactor hydrodynamics


Capacitance wire mesh sensor and electrical capacitance tomography study of trickle-bed reactor hydrodynamics

Matusiak, B.; Da Silva, M. J.; Grudzien, K.; Hampel, U.

Trickle-bed reactors are widely used for a number of different applications in chemical, biochemical and waste treatment industry. Knowledge of liquid distribution and holdup in such reactors is required to better understand their operation and thus to enhance efficiency of processes. The objective of this work was a comparative analysis of the usability of a wire-mesh sensor and Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) for the measurement of liquid distribution and holdup in a trickle-bed reactor model. Thus, a wire-mesh sensor with 2 x 16 wires, operated with a newly developed capacitance-measuring electronics was mounted in the trickle-bed reactor model with inner diameter of 0.1 m. Further, an ECT sensor containing 12 internal electrodes of 50 mm length was mounted above the wire-mesh sensor. The reactor model was randomly packed with a commercial porous Al2O3 catalyst support. Isopropanol was fed into the reactor from the different inlets located at the top of the test facility. In this way, different liquid distributions were obtained and monitored. For each condition, we compared integral liquid holdups and liquid distribution profiles from wire-mesh and ECT systems. Obtained results are in good agreement between both modalities.

Keywords: wire-mesh sensor; ECT; trickle bed; flow visualization

  • Contribution to proceedings
    3rd International Workshop on Process Tomography, 17.-19.04.2009, Tokyo, Japan
    Proceedings of 3rd International Workshop on Process Tomography
  • Lecture (Conference)
    3rd International Workshop on Process Tomography, 17.-19.04.2009, Tokyo, Japan

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Publ.-Id: 12799