Suitability of Using Brass Ferrules as Packing in a Glass Distillation Column and Presenting a New Relationship between HETP and Pressure Drop

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Brass Ferrules have been used as packing in a laboratory- scale glass distillation column approaching pilot plant size because of their availability in all sizes and low cost. The available size range is such that these ferrules could also be used in industry and the results of this study could be scaled up. The performance of the new packing has been compared with the performance of glass packing, and has proven to be more satisfactory with lower HETPs (Height Equivalent to a Theoretical Plate). Three systems were studied in this work, namely, ethanol/water, 1-propanol/water, and 1-butanol/water and the HETP of the brass packing in these systems was experimentally measured. Pressure drop and flooding have been studied together in this work and a new relationship has been presented that relates efficiency in terms of HETP to pressure drop, a parameter that can be measured readily in any column or predicted.