A comprehensive total reflux distillation study of sheet metal structured packings was carried out with the cyclohexane/n-heptane test mixture. The experiments covered a wide range of pressures, two corrugation angles, two surface areas, and two surface designs. Experimental results include pressure drop, capacity, and mass-transfer efficiency. The database generated has been used to evaluate generalized performance models developed independently at The

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive experimental study performed with a Sulzer high-capacity structured packing of a larger specific area, which provided a basis for validation of the Delft model. Purely geometry-based adaptations were made to the Delft model, to account properly for the effect of short smooth bends on both ends of each corrugated sheet, which, in turn, seemed to be beneficial for capacity without adversely affecting the efficiency. Comparisons indicate fairly good agreement with experiments as well as with the predictions of an in-house empirical model contained in Sulzer's software package, Sulpak.

This paper introduces a simple, first principles-based model describing the liquid holdup in the catalyst-containing pockets of Katapak-SP, a modular catalytic structured packing developed to allow a certain degree of flexibility with respect to the variation in reaction-to-separation requirements in a single unit. The basic requirement for the catalyst-containing pockets in this respect is to be fully filled with flowing liquid which implies that the operating holdup is bound between the static holdup of the catalyst bed as the lower end, and that corresponding to the upper limit, the so-called catalytic load point. The latter is the liquid load corresponding to the bed saturation point, indicating that excessive liquid will be retained, i.e., will remain in the separation part of the packing element and mix with the liquid leaving the catalyst-filled pockets at the bottom of the element. Detailed knowledge of the liquid holdup as well as the pattern of the trickling flow is essential because it governs the performance of the reaction part and consequently the hybrid unit as a whole. Both glass and resin (an industrial catalyst) particles were used in conjunction with water and a binary water-methanol mixture as working fluids. The model predictions for static holdup and the catalytic load agree well with the experiments.

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