TRICKLE-BED REACTORS - STATE OF ART AND PERSPECTIVES

Theoretical and phenomenological aspects of trickle-bed reactors as reported in a wide number of papers of the last 35 years have been reviewed. The following engineering topics have been focused by trying a critical interpretation of the attained results: hydrodynamics, fluid-solid contacting, theoretical and semiempirical models, mass transfer phenomena, heat and pressure effects. The more recent themes considered in the literature and some important future trends of scientific and applied research have been enlightened.