Design aspects of pulsed sieve plate columns

The design aspects of pulsed sieve plate columns have been studied. Various correlations presented in the past literature for flooding, drop size, hold-up and mass transfer coefficients have been analyzed. An attempt has been made to screen the available correlations, to select a correlation which can be applied with a large degree of confidence. The correlations were tested against a large set of experimental data gathered from the work of different investigators over the past 50 years. It consists of 400 data points for flooding, 104 for drop size, 247 for hold-up and 274 for mass transfer in pulsed sieve plate columns. The data covers a wide variation in geometrical and operating parameters of the pulsed sieve plate column and physical properties of the liquid–liquid systems. The exercise has helped in identifying correlations that can be used for design of pulsed columns. For mass transfer, none of the correlations reported in the literature were found to be satisfactory. The difficulties associated with this observation have been discussed. The results of the present study can be used to reduce the experimental work associated with the scale-up of the pulsed sieve plate columns.