Soran university

Faculty of engineering

Chemical engineering fourth stage

Design of packed tower

Prepared by

Diyar ali

Supervisor
[Link] Hosin

26/11/2019

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Table of Contents
introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Components of a Packed tower .................................................................................................................... 3
Advantages of Packed tower ........................................................................................................................ 3
Applications of packed tower ....................................................................................................................... 4
Packing Materials .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Type of packed column ................................................................................................................................. 5
Plate columns are used mainly in distillation ............................................................................................... 6
Packing Height (Z) ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Evaluating height based on HTU-NTU model ............................................................................................... 8
Two-Film Theory of Mass Transfer ............................................................................................................... 9
Alternative Mass Transfer Grouping ............................................................................................................. 9
Relationship between HTU and HETP ......................................................................................................... 10

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introduction

A Packed Bed tower is a chemical processing consisting of a hollow tube, pipe, or other vessel
that is filled with a packing material. The packing can be randomly filled with small objects like
Raschig rings or else it can be a specifically designed structured packing. The purpose of a packed
bed is typically to improve contact between two phases in a chemical or similar process. Packed
beds can be used in a chemical reactor, a distillation process, or a scrubber. Packed columns are
similar to plate columns in that the liquid and vapor flows enter and exit in the same manner. The
difference is that in packed towers there are no trays. Instead, packing is used to increase the
contact area between the liquid and vapor phases. There are many different types of packing used
and each one has advantages and disadvantages This type of scrubber is designed for the absorption
of gaseous contaminants and has been in use for over a hundred years. The dirty gas enters at the
bottom of the tower and passes through the packing, counter current to the liquor, which is
introduced at the top of the scrubber via a distributor. The packing is a randomly dumped media
which has a high contact surface area for the efficient absorption of gases into liquids with a low
gas pressure drop.

figure 1. packed bed absorption column

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Components of a Packed tower

• Tower body.
• Tower packings.

❖ Structured packings.
❖ Random packings.
❖ Demister pads.

• Tower internals.

❖ Liquid distributor.
❖ Packing supporting grid.
❖ Packing hold-down grid.
❖ Liquid redistributor.
❖ Gas distributor.

Advantages of Packed tower

1. For corrosive liquids, a packed column will usually be cheaper than the equivalent plate
column.

2. The liquid hold-up is lower in a packed column than a plate column. This can be important
when the inventory of toxic or flammable liquids needs to be kept as small as possible for safety
reasons.

3. Packed columns are more suitable for handling foaming systems.

4. The pressure drop can be lower for packing than plates; and packing should be considered for
vacuum columns.

5. Packing should always be considered for small diameter columns, say less than 0.6 m, where
plates would be difficult to install, and expensive.

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Applications of packed tower

Packed tower is widely used in the industrial filtering: such as pharmacy, coal mine, petroleum,
chemical engineering.

• Separating.
• Filtering.
• Vacuum distillation.
• Purifying.

Packing Materials

1. Ceramic: superior wettability, corrosion resistance at elevated temperature, bad strength

2. Metal: superior strength & good wettability

3. Plastic: inexpensive, good strength but may have poor wettability at low liquid rate

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 Figure 2 types of packing

Type of packed column

1. Random Packed Column: Random packing is packing of specific geometrical shapes which
are dumped into the tower and orient themselves randomly.

2. Structured Packed Column: is crimped layers or corrugated sheets which is stacked in the
column. Each layer is oriented at 70° to 90° to the layer below.

3. Grid Packed Column: Is systematically arranged packing use an openlattice structure. This
device is composed of panels that promote mass transfer and enhance entrainment removal.

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Plate columns are used mainly in distillation

Packed columns are used in absorption, stripping and adsorption We need to calculate the height
of packing in a packed column where the separation process takes place.

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DESIGN PROCEDURE
There are numerous equations and correlations that have been published in the technical
literature for predicting the pressure drop of the vapor traveling through a packed bed and for
predicting the height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP).There are also numerous rules of
thumb that have been published for use in the process design of packed beds and which are
simpler to use and probably as accurate as the equations and correlations.

Packing Height (Z)

Equilibrium stage analysis HETP method:

N = number of theoretical stages obtained from McCabe-Thiele method

HETP

• Height Equivalent to a Theoretical Plate.

• Represents the height of packing that gives similar separation to as a theoretical stage.

• HETP values are provided for each type of packing.

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Mass Transfer analysis HTU method:

HTU = Height of a Transfer unit

NTU = Number of Transfer Units (obtained by numerical integration)

Z = HOG NOG

Z = HOL NOL

Evaluating height based on HTU-NTU model

• NOG is evaluated graphically by numerical integration using the equilibrium and operating
lines.

• Draw 1/(yA * -yA ) (on y-axis) vs. yA (on x-axis). Area under the curve is the value of
integration.

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Evaluate area under the curve by numerical integration Area = N

Two-Film Theory of Mass Transfer

Alternative Mass Transfer Grouping

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Relationship between HTU and HETP

The slope of the operating line m will normally vary throughout a distillation so it will be
necessary to calculate the HETP for each plate or a series of plates.

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The relation between the equilibrium concentrations and actual
concentrations

operating line y = (L / G) x + yout - (L / G) xin

Equilibrium line: K = yi / xi

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References
1. Faïçal Larachi,, Stéphane Lévesque, and, Bernard P. A. Grandjean. Seamless Mass
Transfer Correlations for Packed Beds Bridging Random and Structured
Packings. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2008.
2. G. Q. Wang,, X. G. Yuan, and, K. T. Yu. Review of Mass-Transfer Correlations for
Packed Columns*. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2005.
3. Coulson and Richardson’s/ CHEMICAL ENGINEERING VOLUME 2/FIFTH EDITION

/Particle Technology and Separation Processes.

4. ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE/ KLM Technology Group Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant Solutions [Link]
5. II/DISTILLATION/Packed Columns: Design and Performanc
[Link]
rationsChemical/Absorbers/[Link] [Link]

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