Dear Experts,
I'd like to obtain info about the minimum applicable / applied diameter for a distillation column filled with structured packing.
The column is part of a plant to be installed in a gas field.
The plant has a very low capacity (around 1 m3/h) because it would be only used during startup periods.
The traffic is very low and I'm specially afraid of the minimum liquid rate per surface.
The most critical section would have 2 structured packing beds of 500 mm height.
Possibly, the diameter should be 200-250 mm but I'm not sure it can be done.
I've applied structured packings to crude oil vacuum distillation towers up to 10 m diameter but I don't know the other face of the problem. I imagine that process engineers involved in pilot plants could have some hints to propose.
Thank you in advance for any expert help / comment, that will be considered side by side with packing vendor answers on the same subject (when they will have the time to answer).
Kind regards,
gegio