Packed columns design principles

Packed columns have been used in chemical industry for more than a century. The packing in a packed column provides a large surface area over which the gas contacts the liquid and the gas-to-liquid (and vice versa) mass transfer occurs (Fig. 3). As a result, the gas-liquid mass transfer process in a packed column is very efficient. Research and development on packed column has received much attention. One of the earlier and original literatures reported by Leva covers the principles of gas-liquid mass transfer in a packed bed, as well as packed column design and column internals. Recent reported literatures on gas absorption in a packed column from Fair et al., Strigle, and Billet are excellent references on transport phenomena in a packed column and packed column design. 

Basic Principles of Packed Column Design for Llquld/Liquid Systems... 

The design of the amalgam decomposition tower is thus achieved by combining the electrochemical principles with the chemical engineering concepts involved in describing packed columns. 

T ay, the major manufacturers routinely produce in the order of 100,000 columns per year, and experienced manufacturers have learned to pack columns to a high reproducibility of their performance and stability. Thus the technologies designed to avoid or eliminate column voiding are not needed any more and are found only in niches where the problems have not yet been solved. The primary example is preparative chromatography with large-diameter columns. Because of their importance in preparative HPLC, we will discuss here the principles of radial- and axial-compression technologies. 

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