Hydrodynamic and heat and mass transfer performances of novel ceramic foam packing to humidification tower

• A novel Sic ceramic form corrugated packing is used in humidification tower.
• Relative low pressure loss is promising for gas turbine cycle.
• Excellent heat and mass transfer is favorable for compact humidification tower.

The humidification tower is the key unit of a humid air turbine cycle. The compactness problem of a humidification tower is crucial to the flexibility and safe operation of the cycles. This research focuses on the potential application of the novel ceramic foam corrugated packing in humidification. The hydrodynamics and heat and mass transfer performances of this packing (type FSC-1) are investigated and compared with those of the traditional structured packing (type TJH-250). The experimental results show that the specific surface area obviously increases with a competitive voidage of 93% for ceramic foam corrugated packing. In comparison with THJ-250, FSC-1 exhibits about 60% pressure drop per mass transfer unit, 50% flooding gas velocity, and no more than 37% height of gas-phase mass transfer unit. Although the ceramic foam packing has relatively low air flux, it is also promising for the compact humidification tower due to its excellent heat and mass transfer performance and low pressure loss.