• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.451-464
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• 2008

Three-phase inverse fluidized bed has been widely adopted with its increasing demand in the fields of bioreactor, fermentation process, wastewater treatment process, absorption and adsorption processes, where the fluidized or suspended particles are small or lower density comparing with that of continuous liquid phase, since the particles are frequently substrate, contacting medium or catalyst carrier. However, there has been little attention on the three-phase inverse fluidized beds even on the hydrodynamics. Needless to say, the information on the hydrodynamics and transport phenomena such as heat and mass transfer in the inverse fluidized beds has been essential for the operation, design and scale-up of various reactors and processes which are employing the three-phase inverse beds. In the present article, thus, the information on the three-phase inverse fluidized beds has been summarized and reorganized to suggest a pre-requisite knowledge for the field work in a sense of engineering point of view. The article is composed of three parts; hydrodynamics, heat and mass transfer characteristics of three-phase inverse fluidized beds. Effects of operating variables on the phase holdup, bubble properties and particle fluctuating frequency and dispersion were discussed in the section of hydrodynamics; effects of operating variables on the heat transfer coefficient and on the heat transfer model were discussed in the section of heat transfer characteristics ; and in the section of mass transfer characteristics, effects of operating variables on the liquid axial dispersion and volumetric liquid phase mass transfer coefficient were examined. In each section, correlations to predict the hydrodynamic characteristics such as minimum fluidization velocity, phase holdup, bubble properties and particle fluctuating frequency and dispersion and heat and mass transfer coefficients were suggested. And finally suggestions have been made for the future study for the application of three-phase inverse fluidized bed in several available fields to meet the increasing demands of this system.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.605-610
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• 2011

Phase holdup characteristics of relatively large and small bubbles were investigated in a three-phase(gasliquid-solid) fluidized bed of which diameter was 0.105 m(ID) and 2.5 m in height, respectively. Effects of gas(0.01~0.07 m/s) and liquid velocities(0.01~0.07 m/s) and particle size($0.5{\sim}3.0{\times}10^{-3}m$) on the holdups of relatively large and small bubbles were determined. The holdups of two kinds of bubbles in three phase fluidized beds were estimated by means of static pressure drop method with the knowledge of pressure drops corresponding to each kind of bubble, respectively, which were obtained by dynamic gas disengagement method. Dried and filtered air which was regulated by gas regulator, tap water and glass bead of which density was $2500kg/m^3$ were served as a gas, a liquid and a fluidized solid phase, respectively. The two kinds of bubbles in three-phase fluidized beds, relatively large and small bubbles, were effectively detected and distinguished by measuring the pressure drop variation after stopping the gas and liquid flow into the column as a step function: The increase slope of pressure drop with a variation of elapsed time was quite different from each other. It was found that the holdup of relatively large bubbles increased with increasing gas velocity but decreased with liquid velocity. However, the holdup showed a local minimum with a variation of size of fluidized solid particles. The holdup of relatively small bubbles increased with an increase in the gas velocity or solid particle size, while it decreased slightly with an increase in the liquid velocity. The holdups of two kinds of bubbles were well correlated in terms of operating variables within this experimental conditions, respectively.