Effect of physical properties on the suspension of solid particles in three-phase sparged reactors

Experiments were performed in a 200 mm i.d. column with liquids other than water. Quartz particles with average sizes of 110, 340, 500, 850 and 2000 μm were employed and the solid loading was varied up to 20 wt%. The surface tension and liquid viscosity were in the range of 61–72 mN/m and 1–30 mPa s, respectively. Aqueous solutions of guar gum and carboxy methyl cellulose were used to study the effect of pseudo-plastic behaviour. The effects of drag-reducing agents and electrolytes were also investigated. The suspension of solid particles was studied over a wide range of physical properties. An attempt has been made to rationalize the variation in the superficial gas velocity for suspension in three-phase sparged reactors on the basis of variation in the liquid-phase physical properties. Quantitative correlations and predictive methods are proposed to predict critical superficial gas velocity for the suspension. Qualitative trends in the variation of the performance are discussed and a unified approach is presented.