Study on the effective mass transfer area of modular catalytic structured packings

An increasing number of heterogeneous reactive separation processes is being investigated also favoured by the development of catalytic structured packings that, due to their modular geometry, satisfy both process reaction and separation requirements. Modelling attempts have pointed out that rate based models provide better results than stage models in describing reactive separation columns. Besides the kinetics parameters, predicitve models require the quantification of fluid dynamic related parameters, i.e. pressure drop, liquid hold-up, effective mass transfer area and coefficients. In this study, we determined experimentally the effective mass transfer area of the modular catalytic structured packing Katapak-SP manufactured by Sulzer Chemtech. We used the chemical absorption method and monitored the composition profiles along the packed bed. Liquid load ranged between 5 and 30 m3/(m2h). In addition volumetric mass transfer coefficients were measured to enable a critical analysis of the measurement method and choose the proper operating conditions. Thus, evaluation of the reliability of the results is presented. Then, a simple mechanistic model to calculate effective area is presented. The model is based on packing geometry and flows distributions within the hybrid structure if te packing