A general model for pressure drop prediction across a rotating packed bed

ABSTRACT

Although rotating beds show promise for intensified separations, the fundamentals of their hydrodynamics are still poorly understood. In many operating conditions, pressure drop in an irrigated bed can be considerably lower than that across a dry bed. Previously published correlations don’t provide good prediction of these phenomena. In this research, a semi-empirical correlation is developed to predict the pressure drop across the rotating packed beds. The results show the agreement of predicted pressure drop with the experimental data is acceptable. This model can also predict the pressure drop unexpected phenomena of higher pressure drop in dry beds than in wet beds.

Keywords:

• Dry bed
• pressure drop
• rotating packed bed
• semi-empirical model
• wet bed