Gas solid contacting measurements in a turbulent fluidized bed by oxidation of carbon monoxide

The conversion rate of the mass transfer controlled oxidation of CO over a Pt/?-alumina catalyst (d = 65 ?m) has been studied in a fluidized bed (internal diameter = 0.05 m) p operated close to and in the turbulent fluid bed regime. The objectives were to investigate the gas-solids contacting efficiency to evaluate the conversion data in terms of overall mass transfer coefficients and define the apparent contact efficiency. At high superficial gas velocities, the concept of formation of particle agglomerates and voids is more realistic than the two-phase model considering discrete bubbles and a dense phase. The two-phase model is not useless but has hardly any relation with the real flow pattern in the turbulent regime. nema