Liquid–liquid mass transfer and pressure drop behavior in micro‐packed beds with different shaped packings

Abstract In this work, the liquid–liquid two‐phase pressure drop and mass transfer characteristics in micro‐packed beds with different shaped packing are investigated. The experimental results show that the liquid–liquid mass transfer performance of micro‐packed bed is significantly affected by both apparent flow rates and phase ratio. By changing the characteristic size of the micro‐packed bed, the experimental results show that the average volume mass transfer coefficient has no obvious correlation with the length of the bed, which indicates that the flow and dispersion behavior along the length of the micro‐packed bed is basically stable. By considering dispersion strengthening, vortex strengthening and size effect, a semi‐empirical model for predicting liquid–liquid mass transfer performance in a micro‐packed bed is established for the first time. The model is in good agreement with the experimental results and has strong applicability to various shaped packings. In addition, by considering the contribution of inertia force, viscous force and interfacial tension to energy dissipation, a semi‐empirical model of liquid–liquid two‐phase pressure drop in a micro‐packed bed is established. The pressure drop prediction model can also be applied to different shaped packings.