2 replies to this topic

[Art Montemayor]

Asad:

The general design of packed towers hinges on the unit operation of mass transfer. The types of mass transfer usually applied using packed towers are:

1. Separation of a liquid mixture – distillation;
2. Separation of a gaseous or light component – Stripping;
3. Absorption of a specific gaseous component from a gas mixture – absorption;
4. Saturation of a gaseous stream with a liquid component – contactor, humidifier;
5. Sensible cooling of a gaseous stream with a cool liquid – quenching;
6. Sensible cooling and absorption of a gas mixture stream – Scrubbing;

The above are just some of many uses for packed towers. You don’t state exactly or specifically what you intend to do in your “Acid stripping tower”, so we can’t really be sure whether this is a proper application for a packed tower. You also don’t share the exact, different results you obtained in your “design”. Therefore, once again, we’re stopped short in trying to understand what it is you are trying to design.

You also don’t state what type of design you mean. Is it a process design or a mechanical design. I have to assume you mean a process design. Stripping towers are commonly used in stripping Unit Operations. Applications such as stripping CO₂ out of an Amine solution are very common in industry. Stripping of a light solvent (such as THF) from a heavier solution is also a common use.

Basically, there are little – if any – differences in a packed Stripper as compared with other packed towers – such as scrubbers, absorbers, and distillation columns. All these mentioned towers bring about a mass transfer and any differences between them would be subtle – such as random packing or structured packing. One way or another, the packing used brings about the same scope of work.

If you desire more specific responses, you should supply a specific example(s) or applicaition(s).