posted on 2024-01-30, 14:34authored byAndrew Starrantino, Ken McCarley, Sayeed Mohammad, Tony Cai, Clint Aichele
The prediction of HETP by mass transfer correlations
is important
to the successful design of packed distillation columns. A HETP performance
comparison of five structured packing correlations in the literature
was carried out. The correlations evaluated were Gualito, Billet and
Schultes, Delft, Aspen, and Song. Experimental HETP data consisted
of total reflux data from Fractionation Research Inc., with cyclohexane/n-heptane and o/p-xylene
as the test systems of interest. The data was collected over a range
of high-capacity structured packings, including MellapakPlus 252.Y,
452.Y, and 752.Y. This paper presents the performance of the studied
correlations, as well as discusses major differences in behavior between
the models. In addition to HETP performance, effective area predictions
by all models are presented and analyzed. Overall, the Billet and
Schultes and Song correlations provided the lowest error in HETP predictions
across all packings, but the other models displayed strength in specific
packings or systems.