Effect and surfactants on three-phase fluidized bed hydrodynamics

Experiments were conducted to discern the relationship between three-phase fluidized bed hydrodynamics and surfactant solution characteristics. The standard characteristic, equilibrium surface tension, is inadequate. A novel method for surface tension evaluation, a dynamic maximum bubble pressure technique, was found to differentiate the 12 different solutions studied. The surfactant solutions were categorized based upon a combination of the terminal bubble rise velocity reduction, the equilibrium surface tension, and the new bubble tension values. These surfactant solution categories were correlated with experimentally observed three-phase fluidized bed and bubble column hydrodynamic behavior. Specifically, empirical correlations for gas holdup are presented