Heat and Mass Transfer in Cocurrent Gas−Liquid Packed Beds. Analysis, Recommendations, and New Correlations

TLDR: In this paper, a set of reliable correlations has been recommended for the prediction of the gas−liquid interfacial area (agl), the volumetric liquid- (kla) and gas-side (kga) mass-transfer coefficients, the wall heat-transfer coefficient (hw), the bed effective radial thermal conductivity (λe), and the particle-to-fluid heat transfer coefficient (hp).

Abstract: Meticulous inspection of the literature has unveiled the weakness of several empirical methods for predicting the macroscopic mass- and heat-transfer characteristics relevant to gas−liquid cocurrent downflow and upflow packed-bed reactors. In response, using a wide experimental database consisting of 5279 measurements for trickle beds (downflow) and 1974 measurements for packed bubble columns (upflow), a set of reliable correlations has been recommended for the prediction of the gas−liquid interfacial area (agl), the volumetric liquid- (kla) and gas-side (kga) mass-transfer coefficients, the wall (ηeklw) and bed (ηekls) liquid−solid mass-transfer coefficients, the wall heat-transfer coefficient (hw), the bed effective radial thermal conductivity (λe), and the particle-to-fluid heat-transfer coefficient (hp). Some of these correlations are from the literature, and others have been developed by combining artificial neural networks and dimensional analysis. The accuracy of the proposed correlations surpasses...