Pressure Drop Through Winpak-Based Modular Catalytic Structured Packing:Mechanism and Optimization

The pressure drop mechanism of the recently designed modular catalytic structured packing(MCSP) Win-pak-C was analyzed.As the Winpak-C was based on Winpak,its pressure drop was derived from Winpak accordingly.Pressure drop principles were deduced from the Fluent simulated results:head loss at the layer entrance,head loss of gas flow confluence and diffluence through windows,head loss due to gas flowing out of the junction,head loss due to gas flowing into the junction,head loss of wall effects,and head loss at the layer exit.The major causes of pressure drop were discussed,optimized and compared. Furthermore,relationships among total loss coefficient,Reynolds number and catalyst loading reduction were also investigated.The results indicate that the proposed method can reduce the pressure drop of Winpak-C and the capacity of the catalytic distillation column can be increased.