  Catalyst impregnation is one of the most crucial steps for preparing
industrial catalysts. The inter-particle variability of the impregnated liquid
inside the particles significantly affects the activity and selectivity of the
catalyst. Current scale-up practices lead to poor fluid distribution and
inhomogeneity in the liquid content. This work aims to understand the dynamic
behavior of the particles under the spray nozzle and to develop a scale-up
model for dry impregnation processes. We considered five dimensionless numbers
in the scaling analysis. We performed Discrete Element Method simulations and
experiments of dry impregnation inside porous particles for different vessel
sizes. The water content of the particles was compared for other times
locations, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was calculated from the
axial water content. Simulation and experimental results show excellent
agreement, confirming that the scale-up rules apply to all vessel sizes.
