An understanding of the hydrodynamics of trickle bed reactors (TBR) is essential for their design and prediction of their performance. Flow variables, packing characteristics, physical properties of fluids and operation modes influence the behavior of the TBR. The existence of multiple hydrodynamic states or hysteresis (pressure drop, liquid holdup, catalyst wetting, gas-liquid mass transfer) is due to the different flow structures in the packed bed and can be attained by a set of different operating procedures. Experiments were performed to study the effect of liquid and gas velocity, liquid surface tension, liquid viscosity and the particle diameter of the packing on two-phase pressure drop hysteresis. The parallel zone model for pressure drop hysteresis in the trickling flow was used for analysis of experimental data and flow structure. Theoretically predicted pressure drop hysteresis loop is in satisfactory agreement with experimental data. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.