Prospectus

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DSP-11 Plastic Random Packing Expected Benefit toMembers:

Traditional Research Idea

Plastic packing is common in scrubbers for pollution abatement. Regulatory requirements require performance data in the permits. Poor performance predictions can lead to costly problems in explaining performance deviations from the permit. Correlations for the predicting the pressure drop and capacity of plastic packing are not available from FRI for plastic packing. A generalized correlation valid for multiple plastic packing would also increase confidence in new designs. Present Situation and Proposed Research: FRI has not tested any plastic packing. FRI has developed correlations for high void fraction metal packing. A test of plastic packing would show whether those correlations could be extended to plastic packing that have lower void fractions. As stated in the recent FRI Topical Report No. 147 of January 2003, the "new models are for metal random packing only and are not valid for packing made of other materials." Proposed Internals and Test System:

Background and Discussion: The models in Topical Report No. 147 have the desirable characteristic that they avoid any packing specific parameters associated with the packing type. This allows the correlation to be broadly applicable to many metal packings. Extending this correlation to plastic packing would allow better prediction of column size in particular pollution abatement scrubbers. This would also allow proper permitting of pollution abatement columns.

One plastic packing in the four-foot column. (There is some desire for smaller sizes of packing rather than larger sizes.) Estimated Unit Time: Three weeks of testing with the C6/C7 system. (No high-pressure data would be obtained.) Flood data would be measured at various liquid rates. Obtain efficiency at total reflux. Estimated Additional Costs (Beyond Unit Time): Unknown.

PROSPECTUS

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