On the Track to Understanding Three Phases in One Tower

Packed towers are widely used for distillation processes due to their higher separation efficiency and capacity in comparison to tray towers. The separation efficiency of the tower strongly depends on the liquid flow behaviour inside the packing, which becomes more complex with the appearance of a second liquid phase. Such flow behaviour can be observed in the three-phase distillation process in packed towers, where two immiscible liquid phases flow down the packing co-currently and a vapour phase flows in counter-current flow. For a better understanding of this process it is necessary to investigate the three-phase flow behaviour inside packed towers in detail. Numerical investigations are carried out with CFD and are validated with own flow measurements.