A systematic CFD-based method to investigate and optimise novel structured packings

Abstract In this work, a CFD-based method is suggested and applied to comprehensively investigate the gas-phase flow and mass transfer in a novel packing PD 10. The dry pressure drop and the mass transfer intensity in this packing were compared with those in conventional packings Sulzer BX and Montz B1-500. In order to improve the performance of PD 10, a geometry based optimisation approach was developed resulting in a new optimised packing geometry by which the pressure drop can be significantly reduced without decreasing the mass transfer rate.