Experimental study on local mass transfer of structured packing with the method of flow visualization

A chromochemical reactive mass transfer technique has been employed to study local mass transfer characteristics of structured packing. This technology adopted by experiment is an Ammonia Adsorption Method (AAM) that yields the surface distribution of transferred mass by analyzing the color distribution on a filter paper with the results of the color chemical reaction. A digital image processing technology is applied for data visualization. The three-dimensional plot of the local mass transfer coefficients shows that there exist three peak values on different positions of a unit cell of structured packing. In order to improve mass transfer efficiency of the structured packing, one piece of baffle is added between packing sheets. As a result, the average mass transfer coefficient increases by (10-20)% and the pressure drop decreases by (15-55)%.