Measurement of liquid hold-up in catalytic structured packings: comparison of different experimental techniques

This paper presents the results of an experimental study carried out to examine
liquid hold-up in 100 mm diameter catalytic structured packing Katapak-SP. Two
versions of the packing have been investigated. Both global and local
measurements were carried out on the very same packings, using water at
ambient conditions as working liquid. To this scope, traditional methods like
draining techniques were used to obtain global hold-up values. A non-intrusive high
energy X-ray tomography was used for gathering information on local scale and
study axial distribution of the liquid hold-up over the packed column, inside and
outside the catalyst containing baskets. The total liquid hold-up of the catalytic
packed bed was evaluated by averaging hold-up values obtained at different cross
sections over the corresponding volume. Very good agreement was found between
global values estimated with the different techniques. The experimental results are
useful for supporting theoretical developments in hydrodynamic and mass transfer
modeling.