Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.51, No.11, 4414-4423, 2012
Experimental Characterization and Modeling of High Performance Structured Packings
Results are presented of the total reflux distillation experiments carried out with the newest generation of J. Montz corrugated sheet structured packings, including metal sheet packings (B1-250MN, B1-350MN, B1-500MN), expanded metal packings (BS-500MN), and wire gauze packings (A3-500M), using a 0.59 m i.d. column and chlorobenzene/ethylbenzene as a test system. It appears that by combining appropriately the dimensions and design of corrugations and the corrugation inclination angle, either efficiency or capacity, or occasionally even both, can be enhanced significantly, depending on the type of the packing. This allows leaner columns in new designs and more capacity and other benefits in retrofit situations. The Delft model, with appropriate enhancement of the turbulent vapor flow mass transfer coefficient and the flow direction change related pressure drop, proved to be capable of approaching closely measured efficiency and pressure drop both qualitatively and quantitatively. The exception in this respect is the pressure drop of B1-500MN, with a significant underprediction that is more pronounced at 1 bar than at 0.1 bar, while the trend as well as the predicted points of onset of loading are close to observed ones.