A Series of Novel High-Effective Mass Transfer Unit Elements in Distillation Columns Based On SiC Ceramic Foam Material

A series of novel high-effective mass transfer unit elements in distillation columns based on SiC ceramic foam material

Xin Gao^{a, b}, Xingang Li^{a, b}, Jinsong Zhang^c, Hong Li^{a, b *}

^a School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

^b National Engineering Research Center for Distillation Technology, Tianjin 300072, China

^c Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110015, China

Abstract

A series of high-effective mass transfer unit elements in the form of SiC ceramic foam material were developed by Tianjin University used in distillation columns. The mass transfer unit elements include SiC foam valve tray, SiC foam tray and structured SiC foam packing. The foam preparation method was developed by Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was based on the impregnation of a polyurethane foam with a homogeneous mixture of silicon, charcoal and phenolic resin. The mass transfer unit elements of SiC ceramic foam was manufactured by Liaoning ZhuoYi New Materials Co. Ltd. in China. The hydrodynamics characteristic and mass transfer performance of the mass transfer unit elements with foam structure material were evaluated experimentally using pilot-scale installations available at National Engineering Research Center for Distillation Technology in China. A comparison of experimental data was made with the performance of conventional mass transfer unit elements under same test conditions. The results showed that the overall performance of the SiC foam valve tray was better than that of F1 float valve tray; the SiC foam tray was better than sieve tray; and the structured SiC foam packing was better than structured wire gauze packing. The hydrodynamics of these mass transfer unit elements were simulated using CFD techniques. The agreement between the experiments and CFD simulations was found to be very good, suggesting that CFD simulations could be used for design and scale-up purposes.

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* Corresponing author

 E-mail : lihong.tju@163.com