Effect of Liquid Distribution on Structured Packing Performances

In the chemical processing industries (CPI), structured packings are widely used for distillation and absorption columns.  To have the desired mass transfer performances, it is very crucial to distribute the liquid uniformly across the top of the packed bed with structured packings.  The effect of liquid maldistribution on the separation performance of structured packing was studied.  The tests were conducted in a 1.2 m diameter column using Mellapak 250.Y with the cyclohexane/n-heptane system at atmospheric pressure.   Main test results from this study will be summarized and discussed. 

It is also very important to have adequate drip points across the column cross section.    A theoretical study on the required pour point density of a liquid distributor in a structured packing column was conducted.   Based on the study, this paper presents a simple method of estimating the required pour point density for a packed bed with structured packings.  The effect of structured packing parameters, such as specific surface area, crimple angle etc., on the required pour point densities will be discussed in this paper.  

Key Words:  Structured packing, packed column, liquid distributor, liquid distribution

*Corresponding author. E-mail: cai@fri.org , Phone: 1-405-385-0354, Fax: 1-405-385-0357