Offshore Floating Packed-Bed Reactors: KeyChallenges and Potential Solutions

The influence of floating vessel motions on the hydrodynamic behavior of multiphase flows in porous media was studied using a hexapod ship motion emulator with an embarked packed column. The response of gas-liquid distribution, pressure drop, liquid saturation, and flow regime transition to column inclinations and roll motions was compared to those of the corresponding static vertical and inclined configurations. Two-phase flow patterns in terms of local liquid saturation distribution were visualized online by means of a capacitance wire-mesh sensor positioned firmly on the floating packed bed. The hydrodynamic performance of packed beds under roll motion deviates strongly from that of the static beds, indicating that the known characteristics of the conventional land-based trickle-bed reactors cannot be transposed on a one-to-one basis for design and scale-up of the floating reactor configurations.