Structured Packing

Chandrakant Joshi | Head Applications and Technology | February 24, 2016

Structured Packings Sulzer Chemtech

Mellapak MellapakPlus Gauze Packings

Mellapak® MellapakPlus in BX gauze packing BXPlus®

metals and alloys metals and alloys CY gauze packing in the new gauze
metals and alloys packing

Mellagrid Corrosion resistant

Packings

Mellagrid™ and Mellacarbon™ for

Mellapak® BX gauze packing
Nutter Grid non-oxidizing media
in plastic in plastic
in metals and alloys and alkaline solutions
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Wide Product range Sulzer Chemtech

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Wide range of applicability Sulzer Chemtech

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Mellapak Sulzer Chemtech

Preferred applications:
• Vacuum to high pressure, general duty
• De-bottlenecking of existing tray columns
• De-bottlenecking of existing random packing columns

Application examples:
• Chemical: Ethylbenzene/Styrene, Tall oil,
Cyclohexanone/Cyclohexanol,
Air separation, etc.
• Petrochemical: Water Quench column,
Ethylene oxide/Glycols,
C4-Splitter, Xylene-Splitter
• Refinery: Atmospheric and Vacuum column,
Natural Gas Drying

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Mellagrid – Sulzer Structured Grid Packings Sulzer Chemtech

Special features:
• Resists coking and fouling due to its smooth surface
• Geometric structure efficiently dissipates temperature and concentration gradients
• Much better de-entrainment and separation efficiency than conventional grids
• The low element height and its smooth surface structure allow for easy cleaning
• Mechanically robust structure

Application examples:
• Atmospheric or Vacuum Tower
- Wash section
- Pumparound section with high liquid and
gas loadings
• FCC Main Fractionator
Slurry pumparound section
• Coker or Visbreaker Fractionator
Wash section
• Oil and Water Quench Tower

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Wire Gauze Packing Sulzer Chemtech

Preferred applications:
• Minimum pressure drop requirement
• Large number of theoretical stages
• In high vacuum for degradable products

Application examples:
• Pharmaceutical products (vitamins, etc.)
• Flavours and fragrances (Menthol, Geraniol, etc.)
• Monomers (Caprolactam, MDI, DMT, etc.)
• Fatty acids, fatty alcohols, esters of fatty acids
• Mono-, Di-, Tri-, Tetraethylene glycol

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Mellapak in Plastics Sulzer Chemtech

Special features:
• Large number of transfer units per meter (NTUM),
depending on the system
• Small pressure drop per meter of packed height
• High capacity range up to F-factor 3, depending on
liquid load
• Maximum operating temperatures:
about 110 oC for polypropylene
about 150 oC for PVDF packing
depending on the chemistry of the products treated

Application examples:
• HCI absorbers
• SO2 absorbers
• Flue gas treatment
• Sea water deaerators

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Mellacarbon: Pure Carbon Sulzer Chemtech

Special features:
• Corrosion-proof against caustic solutions,
non-oxidizing inorganic acids including
hydrofluoric acid and carboxylic acids
• Excellent wettability of the packing surface,
also in aqueous systems
• High thermal stability (> 400 oC)

Application examples:
• Separation and recovery of HCl
• MCA / DCA distillation
• Production of phosphoric acid
• Concentration of hydrofluoric acid
• Separation of chlorophenols

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Nutter Grid – Sulzer‘s Conventional Grid Sulzer Chemtech

Special features:
• Proven conventional grid with high performance tested at FRI
• Provides equal or better efficiency in mass transfer, heat transfer,
and entrainment removal services than other conventional grids
• I-beam shaped elements provide greater strength than other
conventional grids
• No horizontal surfaces and high open area to resist coking and fouling

Application examples:
• Atmospheric or Vacuum Tower
- Wash section
- Pumparound section
• FCC Main Fractionator
Slurry pumparound section
• Coker or Visbreaker Fractionator
Wash section
• Oil and Water Quench Tower

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Efficiency Measurements Sulzer Chemtech

Pilot Testing Center in Winterthur

All our packings are measured with test

systems with total reflux at different head
pressures. Typical test column size: 1000
mm

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Factors affecting Packed Bed efficiency Sulzer Chemtech

• Packing Geometry

• Relative Volatility of key components getting separated

• Liquid mal-distribution

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Liquid Maldistribution - Potential Reasons Sulzer Chemtech

1. Liquid distributor quality

- liquid height/ Drip Point Density / hole precision / plugging of the outlet holes /
Multistage distributor operation at “switching points”

2. Packing Design
- Beds too long
- Wetting of the packing
- Packing‘s sealing against the column wall
3. Distributor leveling

4. Column leveling

5. Mistakes with design of gas distribution system (CFD visualized)

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Structured Packing- Sizing Sulzer Chemtech

Efficiency as factor of Gas/Liquid load

● F-factor= Gas Vel( m/sec)x√ Gas density(Kg/m3)

● Beyond certain F-factor efficiency starts dropping

● Higher the surface area, lower the safe F-factor

● The efficiency will not vary as per moderate Liquid load

provided distributor is already designed for that range .At High
liquid load there might be some effct

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Structured Packing- Sizing Sulzer Chemtech

Pressure drop

● F-factor= Gas Vel( m/sec)x√ Gas density(Kg/m3)

● Beyond certain F-factor pressure drop increases expo.

● The pressure drop will not depend upon Liquid load

( Exception very high liquid loaded column
like Absorbers /strippers)

● Higher the surface higher the Pressure drop

● X type packing has normally less pressure drop than Y

type at given F-factor

● Pressure drop at given f-factor is dependent

on operating P

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Structured Packing- Sizing (Special Considerations) Sulzer Chemtech

Aspects requiring special consideration:

- High Liquide Rates

Rates above 20-25 gpm/ft2 may have lower efficiencies

- High relative volatility (α > 3)

- High liquide viscosity & high stripping Factors

- Absorption and Stripping Applications

- High Surface tension

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Typical Packing installation Sulzer Chemtech

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1st Generation Structured Packing Sulzer Chemtech

1st generation Vertical Holdup Profile

structured Packing

Measurements by -ray scanning

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Liquid Flow on Structured Packing Sulzer Chemtech

Bottleneck Evaluation

Holdup Profile
Holdup Profile
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Comparison of MellapakPlus versus Competition High Cap version
Sulzer Chemtech

Two change
of direction
encourage
holdup

Competion

Gradual
change of
direction

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Comparison Mellapak Vs. Mellapak Plus Sulzer Chemtech

Mellapak 250.Y Separation efficiency Separation efficiency Separation efficiency

MellapakPlus 252.Y 1 1 1

HETP [m]
HETP [m]

HETP [m]
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
F/√Pa F/√Pa F/√Pa
pressure drop pressure drop pressure drop
10 10 10

p [mbar/m]
p [mbar/m]

p [mbar/m]
1 1 1

0.1 0.1 0.1

0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
F/√Pa F/√Pa F/√Pa

100 mbar 400 mbar 960 mbar

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High Performance Liquid Distributor Sulzer Chemtech

Former VEP High Performance

Liquid Distributor VEP Liquid Distributor

No Entrainment
Entrainment No Entrainment
up to FF=3.0
@ FF>Pa 0.5 0.5
3 Pa up to FF=4.5 Pa0.5
 Comparison Mellapak Vs. Mellapak Plus Sulzer Chemtech

Mellapak (1 st Generation ) Vs. MellapakPlus (2nd Generation )

Comparison done with Same Column ID

Packing Type 1st Generation 2nd Generation

Top Pressure (mmHg) 80 80

Bottom Pressure(mmHg) 130 110
Bottom Temperature (0C) 90 88
Hold Up (M3) 35 28
Internal RR (Kg/Kg) 8.1 8.1
MVC (More Volatile Component) in distillate
1.55 1.55
(wt%)

LVC(Less Volatile Component)in the bottom

150 150
(PPM)

NTS Total 93 93
Feed Capacity (Kg/Hr) 198 278
Capacity Increase (%) 40

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Sheet Metal Vs Wire Gauze Sulzer Chemtech

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Typical Packing and other internal arrangements
inside the column Sulzer Chemtech

Flanged Columns
Welded Columns
Diameters from 50 mm
Monobloc Type
Diameters
up to 14,000 mm

One piece or segmented

Segmented internals for
internals for installation
installation through manhole
through column flanges

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