Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.95, No.3, 535-542, 2017
EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF NEW WIRE GAUZE WITH HIGH CAPACITY STRUCTURED PACKING
In this paper, experimental studies are conducted to introduce a new high capacity structured packing (PACK-2100) for the separation of mixtures with low separation factor. To improve the performance of this packing, extensive consideration is given to the construction of a new wire gauze structure packing through various hydrodynamic and mass transfer analyses. The surface area and porosity of new structured packing (PACK-2100) are increased to enhance the pressure drop and the separation efficiency. In addition, comprehensive parametric studies are performed to evaluate the dry/wet pressure drop and mass transfer efficiency in different operating conditions of the presented packing. Our findings show that this new structured packing reduces dry and wet pressure drops more than 25% compared to the traditional packing that is used for difficult separations such as Dixon 1/8, with the same specific surface area. In addition, the achieved Height Equivalent Theoretical Plate (HETP) of PACK-2100 is significantly lower (about 20%) than other conventional packings. Thus, the PACK-2100 is highly recommended for the separation of stable isotopes such as O-18 and C-13 in the distillation process.