Improvement of baffle type Rotating Packed Bed’s packing by visual study

Abstract

Process intensification is one of the key branches of process engineering. High gravity equipment achieves intensification by substituting gravity with much higher centrifugal force. Rotating Packed Bed is the leading example of high gravity solutions, strongly facilitating gas-liquid mass transfer. However, cylindrical packings come with certain drawbacks, such as dry spots, that can be overcome with new solutions, such as baffle-based packing geometries. However, when baffles are arranged too close to each other, liquid bridges are formed between them, which may lead to decrease in mass transfer efficiency. This work is concerned with improvement of a Zickzack-like internal by the means of visual studies with the use of high-speed camera. According to measured ligament break-up length, two new packings were designed for particular rotational speeds and tested experimentally for effective mass transfer area and wet pressure drop.Process intensification is one of the key branches of process engineering. High gravity equipment achieves intensification by substituting gravity with much higher centrifugal force. Rotating Packed Bed is the leading example of high gravity solutions, strongly facilitating gas-liquid mass transfer. However, cylindrical packings come with certain drawbacks, such as dry spots, that can be overcome with new solutions, such as baffle-based packing geometries. However, when baffles are arranged too close to each other, liquid bridges are formed between them, which may lead to decrease in mass transfer efficiency. This work is concerned with improvement of a Zickzack-like internal by the means of visual studies with the use of high-speed camera. According to measured ligament break-up length, two new packings were designed for particular rotational speeds and tested experimentally for effective mass transfer area and wet pressure drop.