High Pressure Distillation with Structured Packing - Friend or Foe

Through the 1980’s and 90’s, the industry reported catastrophic failures when structured packings were employed in high pressure distillation.  In 2001 Andrew Sloley, of The Distillation Group, set out criteria where structured packing should be avoided in high pressure distillation. The purpose of this paper is to quantify different physical properties where structured packing is most and least favored. Data were taken from FRI published Mellapak 250.Y data at eight different operating pressure.  It will be shown that low surface tensions and high vapor densities are major indicators where structured packings should be avoided.