High-Pressure Trickle-Bed Reactors: A Review

A concise review of relevant experimental observations and modeling of high-pressure trickle-bed reactors, based on recent studies, is presented. The following topics are considered:  flow regime transitions, pressure drop, liquid holdup, gas−liquid interfacial area and mass-transfer coefficient, catalyst wetting efficiency, catalyst dilution with inert fines, and evaluation of trickle-bed models for liquid-limited and gas-limited reactions. The effects of high-pressure operation, which is of industrial relevance, on the physicochemical and fluid dynamic parameters are discussed. Empirical and theoretical models developed to account for the effect of high pressure on the various parameters and phenomena pertinent to the topics discussed are briefly described.

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