Two-phase flow in structured packings

- Impact Acceleration Grant with P. Valluri, M. Lucquiaud and Sulzer Chem. (M. Wehrli) -

Structured packings are a series of metal sheet with periodic unit cells where a liquid film interacts with a counter-current gas flow.

Flooding, or flow reversal, appears when the liquid is driven upwards against the gravity and is associated to a sharp increase of the pressure drop. It is an unfortunate conditions for the chemical process industry.

We designed a new absorber aiming to reduce the pressure drop and delay the flooding onset. This absorber is "cross-flow" in the sense that the liquid flows from the top to the bottom driven by the gravity (as in an usual absorber) whereas the gas flows from left to right driven by a horizontal pressure gradient (rather than from the bottom to the top as usually). This picture depicts the liquid-gas interface in the cross-flow elementary cell.

Publications:

G. Lavalle, M. Lucquiaud, M. Wehrli, P. Valluri, ''Cross-flow structured packing for the process intensification of post-combustion carbon dioxide capture''. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 178, 284-296, 2018.