PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol. 22, Nos. 3 & 4, pp. 381–396, 2004 Single Phase Flow Pressure Drop in Glass Ballotini Particulate Beds Sabah Yassin Ibrahim * and Emad Talib Hashim Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering College, Al-Zawia, Libya ABSTRACT A study was made of pressure drop during single fluid phase flow to determine the pressure drop characteristic of the porous media (glass ballotini particulate beds) for coalescence. It is also served to check the reproducibility of the packing technique, and to detect any foreign particulate matter or re-arrangement of the individual particles in the coalesce bed. Furthermore these data provided a basis for comparison with that during two-phase flow with coalescence. For spherical particle the modified Carman-Kozeny equation was applied; the commonly accepted value for Kozeny constant is 5.0. However, K, depends on, among other factors, the structure of the bed, voidage fraction, particle shape, tortuosity, superficial velocity, bed depth, particle size, and wall effect. *Correspondence: Sabah Yassin Ibrahim, Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering College, P.O. Box 15557, Al-Zawia, Libya; E-mail: sabahibrahim@ yahoo.co.uk. 381 DOI: 10.1081/LFT-120024395 1091-6466 (Print); 1532-2459 (Online) Copyright & 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com