Hydraulic, mass transfer and heat transfer performance comparison between ordered bed packing and sieve trays

The Girdler–Sulfide (GS) heavy water production process has traditionally used tray columns because of their large size. In recent years, the chemical industry has extended the use of packing to larger columns because of economic and performance advantages. A pilot scale study was thus initiated to compare the hydraulic, mass transfer and heat transfer performance of an ordered bed packing (Mellapak) with sieve trays operating under GS process conditions. Mellapak offered lower pressure drops, higher throughputs and improved heat transfer over sieve trays. However, benefits to deuterium mass transfer were only marginal in large diameter columns.