Improving sieve tray performance with knitted mesh packing

Abstract

Sieve trays have become popular contacting devices for mass and heat transfer applications because of their relative simplicity and low cost. As a result, much has been published in recent years on their hydraulic and mass transfer performance. However, little has appeared on improving contact performance by adding a shallow bed of packing on the trays. The hydraulic and mass transfer performance of sieve trays containing a 25-mm bed of a knitted mesh packing was studied for the Girdler-Sulfide (GS) heavy water production process operating at 32/sup 0/C and 2.17 MPa. With packing, tray pressure drops increased, tray-to-tray entrainment decreased, and efficiency increased by 3 to 20 percentage points. The greatest efficiency gains occurred in the low gas flow range where the tray operated in the bubble regime.