Solid—liquid mass transfer in a non-newtonian liquid fluidized bed

Experiments were conducted to investigate the solid—liquid mass transfer behaviour in a non-newtonian liquid fluidized bed. The column diameter and height of the fluidized bed are 8 cm and 100 cm respectively. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solution was used as the non-newtonian fluid in this study. Dissolution of benzoic acid pellets into CMC solution was employed to obtain the solid—liquid mass transfer coefficient in the bed. The benzoic acid concentration in CMC solution was measured by titration. The in-bed benzoic acid concentration was examined to justify the use of an axial dispersion model in the evaluation of the mass transfer coefficient in this study. It was found that the mass transfer coefficient was essentially independent of the liquid velocity and particle size. However, it decreased as the CMC solution concentration was increased.