Hydrodynamics of gas–liquid flow in micropacked beds: Pressure drop, liquid holdup, and two‐phase model

Hydrodynamics of gas–liquid two‐phase flow in micropacked beds are studied with a new experimental setup. The pressure drop, residence time distribution, and liquid holdup are measured with gas and liquid flow rates varying from 4 to 14 sccm and 0.1 to 1 mL/min, respectively. Key parameters are identified to control the experimentally observed hydrodynamics, including transient start‐up procedure, gas and liquid superficial velocities, particle and packed bed diameters, and physical properties of the liquids. Contrary to conventional large packed beds, our results demonstrate that in these microsystems, capillary forces have a large effect on pressure drop and liquid holdup, while gravity can be neglected. A mathematical model describes the hydrodynamics in the micropacked beds by considering the contribution of capillary forces, and its predictions are in good agreement with experimental data. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 63: 4694–4704, 2017