CHEMICAL engineers who attended the American Institute of Chemical Engineers meeting in Cincinnati have a new kind of distillation tool to think about: the wetted wall tray. Developed by Max Leva, a Pittsburgh consultant, the new tray is a perforated, horizontal tray with short downcomers on each hole. Liquid wets the inside of the downcomers as well as the tray itself. This is why Leva tags his device "wetted wall." In gas absorption tests made by Leva, the wetted wall tray proved to be 65% more efficient than a perforated tray without downcomers. And at the same time the pressure drop was cut by more than half. In Leva's equipment, the pressure drop per transfer unit was 0.25 in of water with wetted wall trays, compared to 0.62 in of water for perforated trays. The wetted wall tray works particularly well at low liquid rates where packed towers can't be ...

+More

gas absorption wetted wall trays packed towers liquid rates horizontal distillation tool

.Walls Wetted in New Tray Contacting element for distillation, absorption excells in mass transfer at low liquid rates. 36 (51),30–31.

"Walls Wetted in New Tray Contacting element for distillation, absorption excells in mass transfer at low liquid rates" 36

"Walls Wetted in New Tray Contacting element for distillation, absorption excells in mass transfer at low liquid rates"