Prediction of gas holdup in the three-phase fluidized bed: air/Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquid systems

The application of the three-phase fluidization technology in wastewater treatment and other biochemical processes has been regularly addressed in the past decades. For the design and development of the three-phase fluidized bed reactors, knowledge of the hydrodynamic parameter such as gas holdup is essential and hence in this paper an attempt has been made to study the effect of fundamental and operating variables on gas holdup. On the basis of the experimental results, a unified correlation has been developed to predict gas holdup in the fluidized bed using the Newtonian and the non-Newtonian liquids. The experimental results showed good agreement with those predicted according to the developed correlation.