MASS TRANSFER WITH A FIRST ORDER CATALYTIC REACTION IN A THREE-PHASE SYSTEM. TRICKLE FLOW ANALYSIS IN A PERIODICALLY CURVED CATALYTIC SOLID

The present work analyzes the process of mass transfer with chemical reaction in a system formed by a periodically curved catalytic wall, which is wetted by a descending film. Through the film a limiting gaseous reactant is transferred from the stagnant gas phase to the catalyst where the chemical reaction takes place.

The film hydrodynamics is first solved with the unknown free surface through a regular perturbation technique, by expanding the resulting equations in terms of a small parameter: the ratio between the film average thickness and the wave length of the curved solid wall. Assuming that the system is isothermal and at steady state, the mass transfer of the gas is afterwards incorporated. A first order kinetics whose limiting reactant is in the gas phase occurs in the solid phase.

Once the model is established and solved, the influence of the dimensionless parameters upon the effectiveness factor and the solid-liquid Biot number is then studied; important effects are found by changing the solid surface curvature at constant flow rate and catalyst volume. Besides, changes in the flow rate, the Peclet number and the ratio between the solid average width and the film average thickness, show significant effects on the net mass transfer process.