Maldistribution, packings, liquid packing type

Very important for all types of packings is a uniform liquid distribution at the top of the bed and a limitation of bed height to 6 or 8 m. Beneath each bed, the liquid has to be collected, mixed, and redistributed. These measures intend to suppress the so-called maldistribution of liquid because it strongly affects mass transfer rates. The design of liquid distributors, liquid collectors, support grids, etc., should provide a large open area not to hinder the countercurrent flow of gas and liquid. 

The maximum bed height that should be used without liquid redistribution depends on the type of packing and the process. Distillation is less susceptible to maldistribution than... 

Up to now there is no useful theoretical model that considers die influence of all types of gas and liquid phase maldistribution on the mass transfer in a packed bed column. But toere is a model able to take into account the influence of Ibe first type of maldistribution of the gas and of the liquid phase and also their velocity fluctuations. It can be applied for that part of the packing where the second type of maldistribution is eliminated, i.e. under the... 

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