Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.48, No.18, 8387-8392, 2009
Multiplicity Behavior of Trickle Flow Liquid-Solid Mass Transfer
Dissolution as well as electrochemical techniques confirmed the existence of multiplicity. The commonly accepted upper multiplicity branch (achieved by Kan liquid prewetting) outperformed the lower branch (achieved by Levee prewetting) by as much as 1.6 times in Sherwood numbers. Although similar trends were observed for the two measurement techniques, the dissolution measurements were significantly lower than the electrochemical measurements. It was further shown that the multiplicity behavior of liquid-solid mass transfer is not linked solely to liquid hold-up and wetting efficiency variations, indicating major differences in flow structures between the multiplicity modes employed. In addition, a decrease in Sherwood numbers with bed depth was observed for both multiplicity modes.