Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2nd Edition

Example 5-4 Calculating Pressure Drop in a Packed Bed

Plot the pressure drop in a 60-ft length of 1½-inch schedule 40 pipe packed with catalyst pellets ¼ inch in diameter. There is 104.4 lb_m/h of gas passing through the bed. The temperature is constant along the length of pipe at 260ºC. The void fraction is 45% and the properties of the gas are similar to those of air at this temperature. The entering pressure is 10 atm.

Solution

(a) First let’s calculate the total pressure drop.

At the end of the reactor, z = L, Equation (5-34) becomes

We now ...