The effects of pressure ( p )

superficial gas velocity ( U G) and solid concentration ( c v) on gas bubble size

gas holdup( ε G)and gas liquid interfacial area ( a ) in a large scale slurry bubble column reactor were investigated. The gas-liquid-solid three phases were methane

mixture of decanes and glass beads with 15-20 μm diameter respectively in this study. The experiments were selected on the basis of three main process variables ( p

U G and c v) at five levels and a statistical correlation ε G to the three main process variables was proposed from the data obtained. Further

the relationship between gas holdup and gas momentum per unit mass slurry was determined and could be expressed as ε G=3 M 1/3 Gexp(-1.5 c v). Gas holdup values were measured by using the manometric method and were found to increase with pressure and superficial gas velocity due to the increase of the number of the small and large gas bubbles

respectively

it decreased with increasing solid concentration due to the decrease of the number of the small gas bubbles. Consequently

the interfacial area was found to increase with superficial gas velocity and pressure

and decrease with solid concentration.