MASS TRANSFER DRIVING FORCES IN PACKED AND FLUIDIZED BEDS

The evaporation of n‐decane into air from the surface of Celite particles, has been used for the establishment of mass transfer factors for both packed and fluidized bed systems. For these calculations log mean partial pressure differences were used. Actual concentration profiles of the transferable component were also experimentally measured by monitoring, at different bed heights, the concentration of n‐decane vapor present in air used as the carrier gas. This was made possible through the use of an extremely sensitive hydrocarbon analyzer. The resulting profiles were used to obtain, by graphical integration, the actual driving force prevailing for each run. A nearly one‐to‐one correspondence was found to exist between the actual driving force and the corresponding log‐mean value for both packed and fluidized bed runs. Copyright © 1969 American Institute of Chemical Engineers