An improved correlation for estimating liquid phase mass transfer coefficient in absorption columns equipped with structured packings

The effective mass transfer efficiency in a column equipped with structured packings was investigated experimentally. The packings analysed in the present work were Sulzer Mellapak 250Y, made of corrugated plastic or metal sheets. In the literature many works have been published on this topic but most of them are oriented toward evaluating overall mass transfer efficiency or the gas phase mass transfer coefficient without accurate analysis of the contribution of the liquid phase resistance. Experimental results showed that, under usual industrial-scale liquid and gas flow rates, the influence of the column packing height cannot be neglected to compute the liquid side mass transfer coefficient. This result agrees with the theoretical analysis on stable liquid rivulet flow.