A study of mass transfer in a packed bed reactor by electrochemical technique

Electrochemical method was used to study the mass transfer between the solid particles and the flowing liquid in a packed bed. From the limiting current of a single active particle immersed in inactive glass particles of the same size and shape, the mass transfer coefficients can be derived.Various size and shape of packing particles were used. The experimental results indicate that smaller packing particles have higher mass transfer coefficient. In the meantime, spherical packing particles have higher mass transfer coefficients than cylindrical particles of the same equivalent diameter. However they approach each other when liquid flowing velocity is increased.The wall-effect of the reactor on mass transfer was also observed.