Are there conditions when the agitation system cannot suspend a catalyst?
Q: I have a 500 ml Parr reactor, equipped with a 4-blade turbine impeller. My reaction solvent is diglyme and the catalyst is a noble metal on silica gel. The catalyst loading is 0.3 wt%. At room temperature, using the glass reactor liner, I can visually confirm suspension of the catalyst at a given RPM. My question is: Holding the RPM value constant, what happens at near critical conditions when the fluid viscosity and density drop? (300 Deg C, 300 psig). Are there conditions when the agitation system cannot suspend my catalyst? Assume particle size is 100 microns. A: I do not know of any experimental data for solids suspension under the conditions that you describe, so I must work from what I know at atmospheric conditions and extrapolate the results to low viscosity and density. Typical variations in viscosity between 0.5 cp and 10 cp seem to have only minor effects on solids suspension. These effects can be small increases or decreases in the difficult of suspension depending on fa
